Volume 2, Issue 4 May 2013

The Official Newsletter for The Faculty of Agro Based Industry

MyFIAT
biodiversity. For example, soil loss due to erosion, loss of soil fertility, salination, over-fishing, heavy reliance on fossil fuel to produce nitrogen fertilisers and pesticides. In addition, food production systems also emit significant quantities of greenhouse gases. Do Malaysian know that the country is facing a food security crisis? For the general public, no. How do we educate the people the importance of food security? One of the easiest was of

The upcoming ARCoFS 2013, to be organized by UMK in collaborations with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agriculture to be held in October 2013. Dr. Soon Jan Mei highlights ARCoFS in a series of short questions and answers. What is ARCoFS? ARCoFS represents the ASEAN Regional Conference on Food Security. The primary aim of this conference is to provide food security professionals in the ASEAN region with a platform to ex-

change information on sustainable food production and to To develop and share the latest findings on crop-, livestock- and aquaculture/ fishery-based food production and plant and animal improvement Is Malaysia really facing a food security crisis? At the moment, no. But it is high time that we produce food in a sustainable manner. Without change, most of the current food systems may continue to degrade the environment, contribute to climate change and reduce the

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

page ASEAN Regional Conference on food Security Gold for FIAT Ruminant Industry Preparing for ARCoFS13 Phytomedicine Visit to MARDI and IVM Upcoming events Happenings 1 &2

1 &2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4

FIAT participated in the International Engineering Invitation & Innovation Exhibition 13 (iENVEX 2013) on the 17th and 19th April held

at Universiti Malaysia Perlis. FIAT was represented by Rizki Wannahari Recovery of Used Cooking Oil Using Bagasse as Adsorbent: Pre- Rizki Wannahari with the
gold medal for her effort

Manuscript writing and publishing workshop FACES in FIAT

Advisor : Prof. Dr. Ahmad Anwar Ismail Editor : Mohd Hafiz Jamaludin

Technical : Nik Ahmad Fakruddin Nik Zulkefli Mohd Salbaharin Ismail

MyFIAT Faculty of Agro Based Industry Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus Locked Bag 100, 17600 Jeli, Kelantan Tel : 09-9477021 Fax : 09-9467158 Email : hafiz@umk.edu.my

Volume 2, Issue 4 May 2013

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The Ruminant Industry is authored by Assoc. Prof. Md. Ruhul Amin from FIAT and published by UMK. The book covers the information on the Malaysian ruminant industry. The book is currently used as a textbook for the Ruminant Industry subject under the Animal Husbandry Programme. The textbook can be purchased directly from UMKs Library. fermented food can be preserved without need of refrigeration) and thus becoming available to public while entrepreneurs will look at how these techniques, new hybrids or agri-food can be developed and marketed. What do you think are the roles of students in engaging the issue of food security? Each and every programme offered in FIAT equip all students with the technical know-how to utilise what you have learnt during your four years of undergraduate studies. For example, students from: SBH learnt about various protein (e.g. ruminant, poultry, aquaculture) industries and how these industries can be further developed or maintained to ensure safe production of food. SBS students are geared with the knowledge in crop science SBT students are of course related to industrial technologies and you can use your background in fermentation and enzyme technology to produce different/ more food. SBP our product development students utilise the raw materials to produce food, pharmaceutical products that may be less expensive and available to more people.

dictive Model and Prototype Design. Rizki is a PhD student of Dr Mariam Fidhaus Mad Nordin and Puan Marinah Muhammad. Fifteen countries participated in this 13 th annual event. These countries are Cambodia,

Canada, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Philippines, Qatar, Taiwan, Romania, United Arab Emirates, and host country Malaysia was represented by established institution.

educating the public are through mass media and I would also like to suggest that the importance of food security should be incorporated into primary and secondary Science subjects and Home Eco-

nomics. How can entrepreneurs and scientist work together to face the issue of food security? By marrying your scientific knowledge (in this case scientist) with entrepreneurial attributes and know-how, you can produce food in a sustainable manner and provide jobs for the public. For example, in courses like fermented food and enzyme technology, food bioprocessing, food production and safety courses. These courses taught you the principles of making food safer (e.g.

Dr. Soon Jan Mei, a lecturer in FIAT is interested in food safety issues

The ARCoFS UMK central working committee were happy to receive a representative from DOA, Mr. Mohd Hafiz Ramly. The discussion was held on the 24th of Aprilwere mainly with regards to the overall preparation for the planned conference in

October. The next meeting which will be held in May in Putrajaya will discuss on the distribution of promotional materials to potential participants across ASEAN. For more information on the conference, visit From left: Dr Suhaimi Othman @ Osman, Dr. www.arcofs2013.webstarts.com Soon Jan Mei, and Mr. Mohd Hafiz Ramly

ARCoFS 2013 PENANG

Come and participate in ARCoFS 2013 and register online at

www.arcofs2013.webstarts.com

MyFIAT

On 18th April, FIAT organised a talk entitled, Phytomedicine: Developments and Challenges which was given by Prof. Gudivada Sudarsanam from Sri Venkateswara. University, India. The talk was attended by more than 130 students and staff. Prof. Sudarsanam specialises in ethanobotany and phytomedicines, with 25 years of teaching and 29 years of research experience. He has authored one book and published more than 50 research papers. The Prof. is also a recipient of the Outstanding Scientist of the 20th Century award from the International Biographical Centre (IBC) Cambridge, United Kingdom. During

his visit to Malaysia, Prof. Sudarsanam was invited to visit UMK Jeli campus. Prof. Sudarsanam later gave a lecture to the students of SBT and SBP on phy- Prof. Gudivada Sudarsanam giving his talk tomedicine. During his talk Prof. Sudarsanam communicate technology from the explained what is phytomedicine, lab to farmers. The informative how it is used and the various talk was than followed by a quesprocedures in the standardization tion and answer session on phyof phytomedicines. He also tomedicine. shared his experience in how to

Recently 58 students of SBH3 and SBH4 groups along with the group lecturers, Prof. Dr. S. M. Rezaul Karim and Cik Aini Afifa Ismail, visited the Institute of Veterinary Malaysia (IVM) and Malaysian Agricultural Rese arch and Development Institute (MARDI), Kluang, Johor Bharu to get the insight of forage management and waste management in the IVM farm. Mr. Saiful Islam, an officer at IVM explained the technique used to manage waste management at the MARDI station. Animal waste from the dairy sheds were acculamalated in the various collecting ponds via The deposited waste materials were then decomposed for a few weeks to finally produced organic compost which can later be applied to the fodder fields. Similar waste management system was also used at the goat farm and the MARDI Artificial Reproductive Breeding (ARB). Later, Dr. Gazali briefly explained MARDIs genearal activities, and later a more specific explanation on fodder management and silage preparation. MARDI developed a efficient silage preparation machine, called

OTOSIL. He then demonstrated the procedure of using the OTOSIL. The OTOSIL was capable mechanically cut fodder plants into smaller pieces which is then compressed and mixed with fermentation organism to enhance fermentation. The mixture was later put into silo drums and covered with plastic and left to ferment. Oil Palm fronds is the most common material used by MARDI in the silage preparation. MARDI also manage to design a Drum Silo Unloader, which can unload or transport drum silo to goat pens of various elevated height. This met hod grea tly reduce d complication and difficulty when manua ll y upl oadi ng and unloading the large drum silo

Later, the groupd visitied the IVM. Mr. Azman, a veterinary assistant from the Agronomy Unit, showed a collection of grasses and legume fodders grown at IVM fodder demonstration plots. MARDI is also active in developing grass breed, such as the MARDI Digit. Other grasses or fodders ava ialb le at the I VM demonstration plots are Turi, Mulbery plants, Caliandra, Kesinai, Epil epil

A group photo session at MARDI Kluang, Johor.

Volume 2, Issue 4 May 2013

MyFIAT

Upcoming events

IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract submission: 15 August 2013 Notification of acceptance: 31 August 2013 Registration: 31 August 2013 Conference date: 8- 10 October 2013

Happenings!

SBH student with a recently born kid

Stalls by students during entrepreneur week

English drama night by first year students held at the campus main hall

Muscovy ducks at a hobbyist farm just down the road from the Jeli Campus

After the welcoming by the Campus Director, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Che Omar, the 1st speaker was Dr. Irshad Ul Haq Bhat, a senior lecturer from FSB gave an introduction on manuscript writing and getting to know publication jargons. In the second session, Dr. Ikarastika Rahayu Abdul Wahab, a lecturer from FIAT who had recently obtained her PhD shared her experience as a young academician in publishing in high impact journals. This was Participants at the Manuscript Writing and Publater followed by a lishing Workshop

A one day workshop on writing manuscript was held on the 28th April was organised by the Research, Innovation and Consultancy Unit, UMK, Jeli Campus. The workshop was divided into 3 session, with 5 speakers.

discussion on how to convert raw data into high quality journal by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruhul Amin from FIAT. The final session had Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Rafi Yaacob, Deputy Dean from the Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business who shared his experience in how to start to write books. The workshop was wrapped up by the prolific Dr. Lee Seong Wei from FIAT who gave some insight on progressing as an academician in university to motivate and inculcate writing and publishing among staffs.

Dr. Mariam Firdaus Mad Nordin PhD (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) MSc (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) BSc (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Research interest: Drying technology, bio-processing, food quality

Wan Shamsul Amri Wan Zainal Abidin Laboratory Assistant Animals Husbandry and Health Science