Driving Change from Within: A Farmer’s Regenerative Journey
This 30-year-old independent smallholder from Sabah is transforming his family’s oil palm farm with regenerative methods. And as a Wild Asia field agent, he’s helping others make the shift.
Growing up, oil palm farming was deeply woven into Trenner Ensim’s childhood. After school, while other eight-year-olds ran off to play, Trenner and his siblings headed straight to the family farm.
“My mum would say, ‘if you don’t help out, our family won't have enough money for food and school,’ ” recalls the second-generation smallholder. Life was tough then. His parents couldn’t afford a car, so getting to school in rural Sabah often meant relying on friends and neighbors for rides.
“My parents worked tirelessly and never gave up,” says Trenner, now 30. “Palm oil became our lifeline. It kept our family afloat and made it possible for me and my siblings to get an education.”
Today, Trenner has taken over far more than his parents’ farming legacy. He found his calling: as a model smallholder, a field agent who helps other farmers meet sustainability certification standards and transition to nature-positive practices, and now a regenerative agriculture advocate.
Breaking away from ‘conventional’ farming norms, this millennial farmer embraces regenerative methods, leverages digital tools, and prioritises social and environmental responsibility. On top of managing his own farm, he juggles a full-time role with Wild Asia – guiding farmers toward sustainability standards and growing a community committed to regenerative farming.
The Beginnings
Trenner’s story begins in the idyllic Toniting village in Sabah’s Beluran District, about 100km west of Sandakan – the gateway to the world-renowned Kinabatangan biodiversity hotspot. With a population of 487, nearly two-thirds of the families here are involved in oil palm, either working for nearby mills or estates, or running their own smallholdings.
Trenner’s father worked at a logging concession before the industry’s decline in Sabah in the late 1980s. He applied for land from the Lands and Surveys Department and started planting oil palm on a 14-acre (5.6 hectare) plot in 1994, two years before Trenner was born.
In 2013, Toniting made national headlines when 42 local farmers under the Wild Asia Group Scheme (WAGS) became the first independent smallholder group in Malaysia to be certified under the RSPO Group Certification Standard, and one of only a handful of certified smallholder groups worldwide at the time. For smallholders who typically lack the training, funding, and technical support available to “scheme” farmers like FELDA (Federal Land Development Authority), this was groundbreaking.
Under the pilot WAGS project launched in 2012, Wild Asia, a Kuala Lumpur-based social enterprise, provided training and capacity building to help farmers meet certification standards. Trenner’s parents are part of this pioneer batch of certified farmers. Through WAGS, they learned better farm management, from proper frond stacking to prudent pesticide use, record-keeping, and applying biomass such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and decanter cake to enrich soils.
After completing Sixth Form (pre-university) in 2015, Trenner made a pivotal decision. Instead of pursuing tertiary education, he became a full-time farmer.
“My dad’s health was declining, so it was time to step up. And I didn’t want university expenses to become a financial burden for my parents,” says Trenner, a Kadazan-Dusun – Sabah’s largest indigenous ethnic group.
In 2016, a field agent role opened up in Wild Asia. Trenner seized the opportunity. As part of the WAGS Member Support team, he recruits new WAGS farmers, trains them, and collects data.
“This job is ideal because I can stay in Toniting and continue working on my family farm,” says Trenner.
“I can connect easily with the locals because I’m part of the community. I speak the local lingo,
and I’m also a hands-on farmer.”
Trenner’s parents received their MSPO (Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil) certification in 2018.
Their experience with RSPO made the MSPO certification process a lot less intimidating.
"If you put in the work, you will see the results."
The Path to Healthy, Living Soils
When Wild Asia launched the WAGS BIO project in 2019, Trenner was one of the first farmers to volunteer his family farm for trial plots. WAGS BIO is a production system designed to help farmers transition from ‘conventional’ to regenerative agriculture, with a focus on improving soil health and soil organic matter and reducing reliance on chemical inputs. Structured in incremental stages, WAGS BIO is open to all WAGS members who are certified sustainable.
Trenner put aside one acre for the BIO plot. Through practical workshops, he and fellow BIO farmers learn to make their own compost, liquid enzymes and fish fertiliser using kitchen and farm waste. They explored multicropping, agroforestry, biochar application and integrated pest management – methods that restore soil life and biodiversity.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Palm oil prices had hit an all-time low in November 2019.
“We had to find ways to cut costs. Making compost and fertilisers ourselves helped us weather the tough period,” says Trenner. “Also, our soil had become compacted from years of conventional farming, and the yields were low. It was time to heal the soil.”
Under the BIO programme, Wild Asia also distributes free ginger and medicinal plant mas cotek (Ficus deltoidea) seedlings to help farmers diversify their income. Trenner planted 200 ginger and mas cotek seedlings, grown in polybags, between rows of palm trees.
Since the start of BIO trials, Trenner has been using a grass cutter to control weeds, and whipping up fruit enzymes and fish fertiliser from kitchen scraps. In 2025, he started making biochar from the midribs of palm fronds and garden waste, using a *Kon-Tiki biochar kiln loaned by Wild Asia. By August 2025, he had applied the first batch of biochar on his farm. A form of charcoal produced in low-oxygen environments, biochar improves water and nutrient retention, reduces soil acidity, encourages soil microbiota, and improves crop yields.
“From experience, BIO practices need about seven months or more to show visible results like healthier soil with more worms, greener palms, and maybe a slight increase in yield,” Trenner admits. “But my farming costs dropped by 60% almost immediately because I do not need to buy any chemical inputs.”
When his parents divided the family land into three separate plots for Trenner and his two brothers in 2022, he expanded his BIO plot from 0.4 hectares to 2.013 hectares.
Data Speaks
To measure the efficacy of BIO practices, Wild Asia partnered with several farmers, including Trenner
(his farm was registered under his mother, Trisar Sarigoh), to monitor their farms annually. Baseline monitoring was done from 2020 to 2024 (the latest data) using key indicators for tree health, soil health, and biodiversity. The indicators for tree health, for example, look at nutrient deficiency and pest or disease damage. Soil health indicators include soil infiltration rate, whilst biodiversity indicators show earthworm population density.
In Trenner’s case, the nutrient deficiency score is lower in 2024 compared to 2021 (see WAGS BIO Report 2024), which means healthier palms. A tree that lacks essential nutrients like N (Nitrogen) or
P (Phosphorus), for example, will result in yellowing leaves, stunted growth, and low yield.
In 2022, minor damage caused by leaf-eating insects and rhinoceros beetles was recorded on the farm. By 2024, there was no visible pest damage. The consistent use of organic soil amendments (bio juice, fish fertiliser and EFB) to improve soil health and soil microbes creates a more resilient ecosystem that could indirectly suppress pest populations.**
For Trenner, the most apparent result is FFB (fresh fruit bunch) yields.
“In the past, my yield could barely reach one tonne per acre. Now, I get one to two tonnes on average,” he says, grinning. “The quality improved too; the bunches are heavier and denser.”
But he adds, “you have to be patient!” He reckons it takes two to three years to really reap the rewards.
Barely 10 years ago, his parents would bring home about MYR 1,000 (USD 242) per month from FFB sales. Now, Trenner and his brothers rake in a monthly average of MYR 7,000 (USD 1,700) from the same 14-acre farm.
He recently harvested 4kg of ginger, which he shared with family and friends, along with a small batch of mas cotek leaves that his father uses to brew medicinal tea. Once he scales up production and stabilises quality, he hopes to sell both crops for extra income.
“I always tell farmers: if you put in the work, you will see the results,” he says. As part of his role at Wild Asia, he runs BIO awareness workshops to help farmers understand the value of regenerative practices and how these skills can build both farm resilience and diversified income.
Realities on the ground
But for all Trenner’s passion and drive, regenerative farming is labour-intensive, especially for someone balancing a full-time job. His daily routine begins at 6 am on the farm, followed by office work at Wild Asia’s Beluran branch or farm visits. When a multi-day work trip takes him deep into the interiors, weekends become his only time to tend to his farm.
“It’s all about time management,” he smiles. “Sometimes I hire farm workers to harvest, but I manage the BIO plot myself. The workers don’t always do the job properly.”
His motivation remains steadfast.
“My parents put their trust in me to be the steward of our family land. I don’t want to let them down,” he explains. Despite a demanding schedule, he relishes his work at Wild Asia.
"I love the continuous learning and the camaraderie with my colleagues, memang best!” he adds.
“I’ve definitely grown more mature, patient, and responsible.”
A Millennial Role Model
But it’s not all work and no play for Trenner. He values a work-life balance and enjoys playing football, volleyball, and badminton with friends. Post-game chatter at the court often turns to stories of farming and Wild Asia’s free workshops, sparking curiosity among his peers.
Young farmers like Trenner are rare in Malaysia, where the average oil palm farmer is 58 years old, according to an MPOB study (Azman Ismail, 2018). In Beluran district – with a population of 101,066 – Trenner knows of only 20 smallholders under the age of 40, mainly oil palm and durian farmers.
“Many young people prefer to join the rural exodus. Once they make enough money, they will return to take over their family farms,” says Trenner, who is married with no children.
But for him, oil palm farming is a meaningful, long-term vocation.
“I’ve so many plans: save for emergencies, start a livestock farming business, and build a house on my farm to be closer to the land,” he shares excitedly.
For Trenner, regenerative agriculture is both a practice and a mission. It is about feeding the soil so it can feed society by producing palm oil that sustains families, enhances biodiversity, lowers carbon emissions, and strengthens rural communities.
He exemplifies the future of Malaysian palm oil: young, far-sighted, and rooted in regeneration.
This story is part of the Malaysian Sustainable Farmer Chronicles farmer profile series, a collaboration between Wild Asia and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council that shares the innovations and best practices of MSPO-certified smallholder farmers in Malaysia.
Footnotes
*A Kon-Tiki kiln is a low-tech biochar production equipment, typically a steel-shaped cone, that uses a “flame curtain” pyrolysis method to create high-quality biochar with low emissions. Unlike commercial biochar equipment, the Kon-Tiki kiln is a low-cost option.
**The average timeline for BIO plots to demonstrate positive results depends on varying factors: the soil and tree health conditions before BIO practices; the parameters – earthworm population, soil infiltration, and soil compaction; and the intensity and stages of the BIO practices. (see WAGS BIO Report 2024, pages 62-63)