Joint Venture to Boost Bentong Ginger Production
Joint Venture to Boost Bentong Ginger Production
(Front row, from left) Prof Zhang, Bentong Cultural, Art and Heritage Association president Professor Datuk Dr.Mohamad Najib Ahmad Dawa and Liow planting a tree to mark the launch of the construction of a Bentong ginger processing factory.
METRO NEWS 4 Nov 2017 | by yimie yong
WITH the latest technology to further improve its quality and output, the much sought-after Bentong ginger will be able to break into the international scene, said Bentong MP Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
“We have always hoped the Bentong ginger could penetrate the world market but it has yet to be able to do that.
“The production of Bentong ginger is still low because of the scarcity of land here,” he said at the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a Bentong ginger processing factory.
However, with the collaboration between Dongguan Institute of Opto-Electronics of Peking University and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARC) in research and development (R&D) on Bentong ginger, as well as the use of Smart Farmbox system, Liow was confident the quality of the plant and its output would improve tremendously.
“New technology such as vertical farming would allow more Bentong ginger to be cultivated,” he said, after witnessing the Agriculture 4.0 – Bentong Ginger R&D memorandum of understanding signing ceremony between the institutions.
Institute of Opto-Electronic Dongguan executive vice-president Prof Zhang Guoyi said the collaboration with TARC was just the beginning as the university was looking forward to more cooperation in the future.
“As the world moves towards adopting Industrialisation 4.0, people are now talking about Agriculture 4.0, which will see farming activities adopting the latest technology such as Artificial Intelligence and big data analysis,” he said.
Zhang said discussions about Agriculture 4.0 has already begun in China.
“In the future, machines will replace manual labour in farms and everything can be remotely controlled using computers.
“The agriculture sector in Malaysia has a long way to go but the collaboration here in Bentong is a good start,” he added.
The initiative in developing and promoting Agriculture 4.0 – Bentong Ginger R&D aims to improve the productivity and income of farmers, address the migration of rural youth and promote new youth “agropreneur” in Malaysia.