WWF senior officer becomes first Malaysian to receive AIA award

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Ng beams as she receives her award from Susan (right) during Fall 2019 Professional Congress in Washington DC on Nov 22.

KUCHING: WWF-Malaysia’s Community Engagement and Education senior officer Alicia Ng received 2019 Professional Fellows Programme Alumni Impact Award (AIA), the first Malaysian to receive the award.

Ng, who is based in the Kuching office received the award on Nov 22 from assistant state secretary for Professional and Cultural Exchanges, Susan Crystal, at the US Department of State during a three-day Fall 2019 Professional Congress held in Washington DC.

The other two recipients of the AIA award were from Tunisia and Myanmar.

The AIA recognises exceptional contribution by Professional Fellows Programme (PFP) alumni to their communities, where Ng is an alumna of Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) PFP for Economic Empowerment cohort under the American Councils for International Education.

In 2017, she completed her fellowship in Arkansas for four weeks, focusing on organic and sustainable agriculture and conservation activities related to her work in WWF-Malaysia.

In a statement, Ng said that the attachments gave her ‘new knowledge and confidence’ especially on the best management practices in agricultural activities.

“When I applied for the programme, I wanted to look into methods used in organic farming as the American organic certification is recognised by many countries,” she said.

She added that her interest was in rice as one of the projects she is actively involved with in WWF-Malaysia is sustainable rice farming in Ba’ Kelalan, thus being placed in Arkansas the rice country of America.

“Arkansas was definitely the most suitable place for me, but unfortunately organic rice farmers are planting on thousands of hectares and not suitable for small-scale farmers in Ba’ Kelalan.  However, the new knowledge on vegetable farming has truly opened up a whole new opportunity which I can apply professionally and personally.

“Planting chemical-free vegetables has been much easier for me at my backyard. It helps me at work too because WWF-Malaysia works with more indigenous communities in Sarawak now and all are looking into sustainable and organic vegetable and pepper cultivation,” she added.

WWF-Malaysia’s sustainable rice farming has seen successful since July 2017 and during that year, the organisation took on a new direction to extend Sarawak Department of Agriculture’s efforts in System of Rice Intensification (SRI) farming method to increase yields, reduce the usage of water and is chemical free. The project constantly seeks advice from SRI expert Captain Zakaria Kamatansha who founded SRI Lovely Organic Valley in Kedah. In 2018, the project started off with about 12 farmers from Long Langai in Ba’ Kelalan but has expanded to the neighbouring village, Long Lemutut with 27 farmers. Long Langai farmers have experienced increase in rice yield, spurring other farmers to adopt  SRI farming method.

Ng also shared that more than 10 farmers from Long Langau had submitted their MyOrganic applications and are currently going through auditing and assessment by the Department of Agriculture.

Outside of work, Ng has been a volunteer for many years with Save Our Strays (SOS) Kuching, where her love for animals has seen her dedicating efforts with her close friends to rescue strays from the streets and putting them in temporary shelter under Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Rescue (TNVR) programme.  Ng and her animal lover friends also started “Artinsia for Paws” to raise funds for SOS Kuching by selling handmade products made by women throughout Sarawak.