Vana Malaysia SDN BHD officially started on the 13th of July 2016, with the launch of the Vana workshop in Kuala Lumpur. The workshop was attended by over 60 delegates including farmers, scientists, agriculturists and market specialist. The workshop which lasted for 3 days, introduced the concept of Vana to the participants. It focused on the changes proposed to each section of the agriculture value chain and what each of the participants are bringing to the table. Vana Malaysia started operations by introducing the concept of Vana to 40 farmers in Ipoh, The capital of the state of Perak. Of the questions raised, the most persistent ones were about the farmer training, scientific assistance and market access. The land was fragmented and disbursed between Ipoh and Chemor in Perak. The sample size contained a good mix of part-time and full-time and experienced and first -time farmers.
Of the 11 farmers, 10 farmers were situated around Ipoh and only one farmer was based out of Selangor. In accordance to Vana’s philosophy of accessible innovative farming technologies, the farmers were given 6000 poly bags per acre. A total of 375,000 polybags were disbursed among the 11 farmers. To decrease the risk of spurious seeds not germinating, Vana grew seedlings in the nursery in VRIC in Jenderam Hulu and transported them to the farms. By doing this, Vana also added another cropping season in a year for the farmers by taking 15 days off the current cropping season. Malaysia’s equatorial climate is suitable for cultivation of most of the horticulture crops throughout the year. By reducing the length of the cropping cycle and decreasing the loss due to spurious inputs, Vana is effectively increasing the chances of a better yield. The farmers were also supplied with drip irrigation kits which save around 70% of the water used in sprinkler of flood irrigation. This not only reduces the water usage but also saves on the electricity that is otherwise used to pump water into the fields.
In addition to the irrigation kits, the seedlings and the polybags, Vana also supplied the farmers with coco peat and vermicompost to be mixed with the soil and filled into the polybags. To ensure that the farmers did not use chemical-based fertilizers, Vana collaborated with Terravana Biofertilizers SDN BHD to supply a customized solution of biofertilizers. This solution comes in a liquid as well as a solid form and only needs to dilute in water before use. The solution yielded very good results and was recommended by the pilot farmers to their colleagues who requested Vana for the same. A Vana personnel was always present on the field to help the farmers through the process of land preparation and sowing of the seeds. After the initial planting is done, Vana also supplied the farmers with an instruction manual to guide through the day to day activities of the farm. The instruction manual was a collaboration between VRIC and the scientist of Terravana Laboratories. Vana also provided the farmers with farm implements like garden carts, battery operated fertilizer sprayers and seedling trans planter. These tools decrease the amount of time the farmer spends laboring in the fields and gives him/her more time to monitor the field.