By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Izwan Azman

BANGI, 21 Jan 2016 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM) will continue collaborating with a research company aimed at increasing the yield of palm oil for Boustead Plantations Berhad, one of Malaysia’s most experienced and established  upstream oil plantation companies.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for that purpose was signed today between  UKM and Advanced Agriecological Research Sdn Bhd (AAR), the research arm of Applied Agricultural Resources Sdn Bhd.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof Datuk Dr Mazlin Mokhtar represented the Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali in signing the agreement, while Boustead Plantations Bhd Chief Operating Officer cum AAR Director Chow Kok Choy signed for AAR.

A team of researchers from the Institute of Systems Biology (INBIOSIS) of UKM led by Dr. Syarul Nataqain Baharum is doing the research for the university.

The project began with progress made in the analysis of a mycoparasite,   Scytalidium parasiticum, isolated from another fungus that causes basal stem rot of oil palm in Johor. A mycoparasite is a fungus or other parasitic organisms that feeds on other fungus.

In his opening remarks, Prof Mazlin said the accord is actually a follow-up of the project carried out by Dr. Syarul Nataqain together with two groups of researchers from AAR Dr Tasren Mahamooth and  Goh Yit Kheng.

“Based on the initial success of this project, Mr Goh’s research group wants to continue this research collaboration with the expertise and metabolomics platform available at INBIOSIS. In addition, the research group of Dr Tasren is  also keen to collaborate on research that led to the signing of the cooperation agreement today,” the Deputy Vice-Chancellor explained.

He noted that the agreement covers three projects following the initial success.

They are:

• The detection and measurement of oil palm phytochemicals, or chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants
• Measuring how much nitrogen is converted to ammonium in oil palm trees
• Finding out how nitrogen is transformed into ammonium in oil palm tissue culture.

Chow, in his remarks before the signing, noted that all three projects are vital for Boustead to curb parasitic fungus that attacks oil palm trees, and will help produce high quality palm oil.

“ We want to move into food production. We need to have more cooperation between the private sector and public research institutes. We have few Bio-technology experts, so this cooperation is very important.

“Some of the research done by scientists in UKM can be applied to our industry, and not available elsewhere. I’ve seen other agricultural research done overseas. We can have similar collaborations in Malaysia,”  he remarked.

AAR is a subsidiary of Boustead Holdings Berhad and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, two giant companies listed on the main board of the Malaysian stock exchange.

AAR has supervised more than 360,000 hectares of oil palm, rubber and cocoa plantations in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia.