KUCHING: Maxis has teamed up with Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) to collaborate and co-develop agricultural and agrifood based solutions.
Both parties will leverage each other’s capabilities to integrate engineering and ICT in projects for a sustainable and competitive agricultural industry.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Maxis and MARDI recently at Menara Maxis to formalise the partnership.
Signing on behalf of MARDI was its director-general Datuk Dr Mohamad Zabawi Abdul Ghani, while Maxis was represented by its acting chief enterprise business officer, Claire Featherstone.
“The agricultural sector continues to be one of the most important growth engines for the national economy.
“Our partnership with Maxis is timely as we look forward to the modernisation of agricultural practices through the implementation of new approaches based on modern technology and sustainable development, in line with the IR4.0 and Sustainable Development Goals 2030,” said Mohamad.
Claire said, “Data integration and connectivity have become critical to the advancements of industries, and there are many opportunities to enhance productivity and yield for local farmers through increased automation.
“The potential to modernise the agricultural sector is immense, and Maxis is excited to collaborate with MARDI to develop and co-pilot smart solutions through IoT applications and higher bandwidth to assist with everyday farming practices,” she added.
As a pilot project, Maxis and MARDI will work on precision farming for ginger at MARDI’s facilities across the country using automated systems to utilise fertigation with drip fertilisers, big data analytics, as well as 24/7 surveillance.
The pilot aims to rollout the technology to more than 400 ginger agro-prenuers to enhance efficiency and equip MARDI with useful data on how to use technology in addressing food security challenges.
Under the MOU, both parties will work on projects including capacity-building programmes, research, seminars, conferences, and pilot studies on smart agricultural solutions over the next two years.
Maxis previously collaborated with MARDI in 2019 on advanced technological solutions powered by Maxis’ NB-IoT.
Then it was to help increase yields, resource efficiency and quality of grape farming produced at the MARDI Agro Park in Langkawi, Kedah, enabling farmers to remotely monitor their crop conditions through mobile apps.
The partnership was also one of the nation’s 5G Demonstration Projects.
