Generating growth in aquaculture
UNIVERSITI Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) hopes to grow a community of aquaculture entrepreneurs following the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the varsity’s Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (Akuatrop) and five industry partners.
According to UMT vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr. Nor Aieni Mokhtar, the collaboration would facilitate technology transfer from Akuatrop — a regional referral point for aquaculture — to the companies involved as well as provide students studying in aquaculture related programmes a real working environment within the companies for their industrial training before graduating.
“The majority of the companies signing up with us today are start-ups, young companies in which a lot of knowledge transfer can be done. With lecturers involved in the collaboration, the problems and issues faced by the industry can be better understood and resolved. And from there, the companies can contribute through their products and solutions to invigorate the growth of more aquaculture entrepreneurs. This would also enable graduating students to venture into the aquaculture business with the exposure under their belts,” she said.
She was speaking to reporters after the signing and exchange of documents in a ceremony held in Putrajaya.
Apart from empowering the aquaculture sector at the university, Nor Aeini said the collaboration with industry partners was one of UMT’s initiatives in helping Akuatrop’s efforts to obtain rating as a Higher Education Centre of Excellence (HiCoE).
She added that the collaboration with the industry seeks to leverage highervalue learning resources that shape students’ intellectual development, while UMT’s expertise would be used to help enhance the business capabilities of industry partners.
“This is also in line with the Ministry of Higher Education’s objective which encourages university-industry collaboration, thereby helping to increase student marketability,” she said.
The five companies represented at the MoA ceremony were AM Aquatechnics Sdn Bhd, Biodynamic Aquaculture Technology Sdn Bhd, Ginger and Coconut Development Sdn Bhd, MyAqua Development PLT and Usaha Fadzilat (M) Sdn Bhd.
AM Aquatechnics is planning to become a broodstock multiplication centre in Malaysia for giant freshwater prawn where Akuatrop hopes to contribute in terms of joint research for the species’ broodstock technology.
For Biodynamic Aquaculture Technology, Akuatrop is set to conduct joint research and development in breeding and seed product technology of jade perch fish.
Ginger and Coconut Development —the nation’s first mud crab commercial farming company, will join Akuatrop in research of mud crab seed production commercially.
Meanwhile, MyAqua Development — a company in Malaysia pioneering the concept of open sea cage-culture green farming, will collaborate with Akuatrop in research and development of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system concept.
Lastly, the collaboration between Akuatrop and Usaha Fadzilat will be looking into breeding and seed production technology of milkfish.