BINTULU - The reopening of Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus (UPMKB) in 2001 has put the campus back on the 'map' of Sarawak higher education after the establishment in 1987, of course, UPMKB has a strategic collaboration and cooperation to the development of the state of Sarawak. 

 

Prof. Dr. Shahrul Razid Sarbini Director of UPMKB Campus said, since 2018 the top management of UPM has been planning to design UPMKB in order to contribute directly to the development of Sarawak and Borneo region as well as highlight the university's niche, namely Agriculture and Forestry.

 

Lifting the image of UPM's 'twin campuses', UPMKB's strategic plan started with various initiatives to enhance collaboration with Sarawak in the capacity to make UPMKB the Agriculture and Forestry Research Hub, as well as ethnic and social economic.

 

Starting with only three diploma programs, UPMKB now offers 9 Diploma programs, 5 Bachelor programs, and a Master and PhD program with research in 52 areas.

 

UPMKB received a gift of RM10.95 million from the Sarawak government to the Faculty of Agricultural Science and Forestry as the Forestry Research Hub. In addition, an award of RM 2.5 million from the Sarawak government, Faculty of Humanities, Management and Science for the Sarawak Ethnic Research Chair, Tok Nan Chair and a RM 3 million gift from the Sarawak government, for UPMKB for the paddy transformation project, AgriHub@Gedong.

 

The AgriHub@Gedong project is one of UPMKB's strategic collaborations with Sarawak in rice research.

 

In this project, the Sarawak Premier, The Right Honourable Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg has approved the project amounting to RM3 million and the involvement of UPM experts, 10 UPMKB lecturers and two lecturers from UPM Serdang Campus. 

 

UPM experts will directly transform the method of paddy cultivation in Gedong and improve the socio-economic of the paddy mammoth community as well as survey potential districts and communities for the purpose of transferring expertise. 

 

In addition, in the project, UPM experts will introduce 'Good Agricultural Practices' such as compost manufacturing to maintain rice productivity, the use of IoT to prepare and monitor plots as well as the use of rice waste as a value-added material.

 

The main aspiration is to support the Sarawak state government's hopes of becoming the nation's food producer by 2030. 

 

UPMKB will continue to be the leading institution of higher learning in Sarawak and the Borneo region. - UPM

 

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