By: Nurul Ezzaty Mohd Azhari
Photo: Noor Azreen Awang

SERDANG, July 21 – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) through the Putra Agriculture Centre (PPP) and Consortium of Malaysian Universities (CMU), established a collaboration to help with daily expenses to assist primary school students through the sale of melons.

UPM Vice Chancellor, Dato' Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman, said the Kasih Madani CMU-UPM programme aids students from National Schools, National Chinese Vernacular Schools (SJKC), and National Tamil Vernacular Schools (SJKT), who are from low-income or poor families.

"Through this programme, CMU will get donors to donate by buying a product produced by PPP UPM, which is a box of two Sun Melons priced at RM388.

"A large portion of the generated income from the melon purchases will be distributed to primary school students as the free food aid programme for 80 days," he said at the launch of the UPM-CMU Kasih Madani programme at the Dewan Taklimat Serdang Foyer, here today.

He added that, as a start, UPM and CMU aim to run this programme in 30 schools within the state of Selangor with a target of 10 students per school.

In the meantime, he also hoped that this programme would receive a favorable response and that more aid would be channelled to students in need.

According to UPM PPP Director, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Zaharah Sakimin, this daily allowance assistance programme can fulfil the students' daily nutritional needs, and they can fully focus on learning at school.

"The wealth of crops produced at UPM needs to be shared with the community through the sale of fruits like this or other crops while donating, which will help those in need.

"I also hope that this collaboration can foster the interest of young people and students in the field of agriculture, especially crops, livestock, and fisheries, and then the opportunity to continue their studies at UPM," she said.

Meanwhile, CMU Advisor, Dato Seri James Wong said this collaboration will be carried out throughout the year according to the sun melon yields by PPP UPM.

"Those who are interested in taking part in this donating while buying effort can get the QR Code on this poster or contact us through the CMU Consortium of Malaysian Universities Facebook page via the link," he said. -UPM

Date of Input: 26/07/2023 | Updated: 28/07/2023 | hairul_nizam