Indonesian undergraduates learned about fertigation system at UMP

By: ROZANA SAHADAN, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP & 
       COMMUNITY RELATIONS (ICoN) AND NUR SA’ADATUL AFZAN JUSOH,  CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIVISION
 

Twenty one undergraduates from Universiti Andalas, Padang in Indonesia and volunteers from Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) were involved in a community service programme involving UMP Technology Sdn. Bhd. (UMPT) eggplant fertigation site that was located at its Gambang Campus.
The programme was held for two days - July 9 and 10, 2019 and undergraduates who took part in the programme were from various faculties including medicine, science and politics and agriculture.
There were briefing sessions that highlighted works to be carried out throughout the programme and among the activities were cleaning of the site, pruning of the leaves and harvesting the eggplants.
The participants were also taught on how to separate the eggplants according to the grades and learned about how to build a nursery site.
According to one of the participants, livestock management course student Muhammad Fiqi Hermanto said the programme was a hands-on experience where they got to apply lessons learned in the classroom and practice it with the outside community.
“It makes the knowledge gained more significant and at the same time, brought about benefits for the people,” he added.
He was also touched by the warm response from his friends from UMP and planned to invite them over to Universiti Andalas.
Another participant and communications undergraduate Salsabila Utama, said she was very excited about joining in the programme and that she got to make new friends here.
“I also got to know more about UMP and exchanged a lot of information and gained valuable experience from this trip,” she added.
UMPT General Manager, Dr. Nur Aainaa Syafini Mohd Radzi said the participants were really enthusiastic about being able to work at the fertigation site that had produced some 15,000 eggplant trees of different sizes.
“The eggplants are now being harvested,” she said, adding, staff from ICoN also showed their support by going to the field to help the students with the community service work.
She hoped that through programmes such as this, participants would be able to gain knowledge and experience about the fertigation system which had been successfully implemented in UMP Gambang Campus.
She also said UMPT had entertained other parties such as Etiqa and that there were interests expressed by certain quarters on acquiring the university’s expertise in fertigation technology.