FOURTH SERIES OF UTAR AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR A SUCCESS

UTAR Centre for Biodiversity Research had successfully organized the fourth series of Agriculture Technology Seminar recently, with the theme "Current R&D of Agroindustries in Malaysia". Held on Saturday, 19th November 2011 at the UTAR Perak Campus Auditorium A003, the seminar saw the participation of about 100 people from universities, public and industry. With the emphasis on the oil palm industry in Malaysia, the seminar had a lineup of outstanding speakers from both the industry and academia, and saw an active deliberation on the new knowledge and solutions to key problems faced by the agro-industries. 

The seminar started off with welcome speeches by the Organising Co-Chairperson, Associate Professor Dr. Wong Hann Ling and Vice President of UTAR (R&D and Commercialization), Prof. Dr. Lee Sze Wei, who both agreed that agriculture is an important sector contributing to the country's economy besides ensuring food security in the country. Realizing the vital impact of agriculture to our country, UTAR wishes to be a catalyst in cultivating the interest of the younger generation in agriculture and these seminar series served as an interacting platform for academicians, industry and the public.

UTAR Professorial Chair in Agricultural Science, Prof. Dr. Ooi Aun Chuan then chaired the seminar, which started off with an academician from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Dr. Parameswari Namasivayam, who gave a talk on "Truncated leaf syndrome seedlings, a somaclonal variation in oil palm." Dr. Parameswari enlightened the audience on the morphological, physiological and molecular differences between the truncated leaf syndrome and normal oil palm seedlings. The truncated leaf syndrome will look like grasshopper damage and have stunted growth with only a stub as remains. Next on the list was Prof. Dr. Soh Aik Chin from University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, who gave a talk on "Sustainable palm oil production." He gave examples of reasons for the low national productivity challenge faced by the oil palm industry in Malaysia, which include labour problems and the lower yielding potential of current palm oil varieties. He reckoned that intensification and perseverance in research and innovation will ensure the further sustainability of oil palm cultivation in Malaysia.

 

The seminar was also graced by the support of a governmental research institute, with Dr. Idris Abu Seman from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) who enlightened the participants with his latest R&D on Ganoderma, a fungus which causes basal stem rot in oil palm. After breaking from lunch, joining the list of distinguished speakers was Prof. Dr. Jenniffer Ann Harikrishna from Universiti Malaya, who talked on microRNA (miRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) in plants. These non-coding ribonucleic acids (RNA) can have big impacts on plant phenotypes and so can affect their agronomic value.
A technical seminar was then given by Mr. Vahid Omidvar, from Illumina Agriculture Consortia, who shared his company's latest technology in next generation sequencing and microarray and how they could be used to improve and speed up R & D in agriculture. Ending the list of talks for the day was Dr. Harikrishna Kulaveerasingam, the Senior Vice President II and Head of Quantum Leap R & D, Sime Darby R & D Centre. Dr. Harikrishna was instrumental in spearheading the effort to sequence the oil palm genome at Sime Darby and in May 2009, Sime Darby announced that it has successfully sequenced, assembled and annotated the oil palm genome. 
Wrapping up the seminar was a lively discussion between the audience and the panel led by Prof. Ooi Aun Chuan, with questions from participants which ranged from inculcating interest in agriculture biotechnology among them, to the safety of genetically modified organisms. Faculty of Science Dean, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lim Tuck Meng, presented tokens of appreciation to all the speakers and the chair of the seminar session and gave a closing remark thanking all the invited speakers, advisors, participants and organizing committee before ending the day with light refreshment.