goingplacesmagazine.com
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54
| August 2019By making it economically viable for
the farmers to continue farming, this helps
to preserve the heirloom rice – the seeds face
extinction if they are not planted.
EXPLORE (^) | Langit Collective
with. The black Keladi rice, which turns into a
lovely mauve purple when cooked, has a slight
pandanus flavour. When Langit distributes
samples to top chefs in Kuala Lumpur, they
often enthuse about the distinct flavours. Fans
and supporters share their food photos using
the rice on Langit's Instagram page.
Langit Collective's beginnings were largely
fuelled by a need to do good as none of its
members had a business or agricultural
background – between them, they had an
actuary, a producer, a chiropractor and a
designer. The foursome wanted to be more
than just a non-profit organisation relying on
donations, so they knew they had to get savvy
as social entrepreneurs. As a first and crucial
step, they applied for and got accepted into
the MaGIC accelerated programme for social
enterprises in Malaysia, a four-month course
that covered every topic from ideation all the
way to the final product.
"At the beginning, it was a real struggle for
us, to make things happen and to think
about profitability. The programme gave
us a framework in which to work on," said
Chen. They started their operations from
scratch, establishing supply chains, arranging
transportation and applying for licenses.
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electricity, but wanted to work on projects
that had a long-term impact. "We realised that
the core of the problem here is poverty and
in order to break that cycle, the only way is to
find a sustainable solution through economic
empowerment," said Lim.
The answer would come in the heirloom rice
that they were savouring at each meal. The
farmers were growing the rice, just a handful
out of the 300 varieties of heirloom rice found in
Sarawak, primarily for their own consumption.
Owing to the high cost of transporting the rice
from their remote location to the local markets
(a four-hour off-road drive away), nullifying
whatever income they made from sales, the
farmers often chose to feed the excess rice to
their livestock.
This inspired the four to form Langit Collective,
a social enterprise that collects, packages, sells
and promotes heirloom rice produced by the
Lun Bawang community from the rural area of
Lawas, Sarawak.
Langit offers three categories of rice – white, red
and black, as well as Job's Tears, a native grain
being grown in the villages. With their luscious
colours and subtle flavours of earth and flora,
this is not the polished rice that we are familiar
_Aug 2019_Explore Langit Collective03.indd 54 18/07/2019 10:45 AM