| Universiti Putra Malaysia

FANRes 2017 Highlights the Role of Agropreneurship In Food Safety And Sovereignity

By Nurnadhira Mahidin

Photo by Noor Azreen Awang

SERDANG, 22 August- The Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia (UPM) organised the 3rd International Conference on Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources 2017 (FANRes 2017) to overcome new challenges faced by agropreneurs in food safety and sovereignity.

Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agricilture & Agro-Based Industry, Dato’ Sri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said that food manufacture is challenged by many factors such as limited production and climate change.

He also added, “Entrepreneurship is identified globally as a catalyst to produce efficient food and  to improve agricultural productivity amongst producers  to improve the country’s economy.”

“The challenges faced by agricultural manufacturing today is strengthened by limited resources such as labour, soil and water and require comprehensive approaches to solve them,” he further commented.

UPM’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Datin Paduka Dr. Aini Ideris stressed that the issue of food security will prove to be more challenging in the future because of the increasing demand for food which correlates with the growth of the country’s population and rise of income.

“Food accessibility through technological applications requires new skills from various agricultural programmes. By increasing productivity and income, this would attract more entrepreneurs to this industry,” she continued.

FANRes 2017 which is in its 3rd  year, took place from 21 to 23 August and the theme was ‘Fostering Agropreneurship for Food Sovereignity’. The conference was jointly organised by Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Jember, Tokyo Universiti of Agriculture (TUA), International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (ISSAAS), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and Japan-ASEAN Secretariat.

A total of 200 participants from various countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Phillipines, Singapore, Brunei, South Korea, Iran, Nigeria, Japan and Bangladesh participated in this conference. -UPM

 

 

 

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