MARDI KEEN ON ITALY MACHINERY
Local players encouraged to embrace mechanisation to improve crop yields
THE Italy-Malaysia Agricultural Machinery Forum recently gave industry stakeholders new insight into how Italian technology and innovation is raising the bar in farm mechanisation to enable farmers to achieve greater agricultural yields.
Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) Centre for Strategic Planning and Innovation Management director Dr Rozhan Abu Dardak said local agriculture players needed to transform the industry from one that was labour-intensive into one that was technology-based.
In a statement on Thursday, Rozhan, who spoke at the forum, said more advanced mechanisation would help increase yield, capacity and productivity.
“Technology and innovation are vital to ensure the industry evolves. Not only will this help improve productivity, it will also address labour shortage concerns.
“Previously, between 10 and 50 workers were needed to tend one hectare of plantation land. With technology, only one or two workers are needed in some areas.
“As such, our relationship with Italian agri-manufacturers is a symbiotic one,” he said.
The forum was organised by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) and Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation (Federunacoma).
Rozhan said production levels saw increases each year, with the industry contributing about RM40 billion to the country’s gross domestic product last year.
Mardi expects this growth trajectory to continue at a comfortable 15 per cent this year, with new technology and machinery being key drivers.
Ranked second in the world as exporters of agriculture machinery and equipment, Italy has a five per cent market share of Ma l ays i a’s total i mp or ts, amounting to €7 million (RM35.16 million), according to ITA.
Italian trade commissioner Dr Samuele Portia said Italian-made agri-machinery, equipment and technologies had been used in Malaysia by plantation owners, farmers, academia, as well as governmental agriculture departments in a host of industries, including palm oil, rice, rubber and pineapple cultivation for over 30 years.
“Our aim is to contribute to the sustainability of the industry and technology and innovation are essential components when it comes to agri-machinery,” he said.
He said the agriculture industry had evolved primarily due to mechanisation in Italy.
Federunacoma manager Dr Marco Acerbi said precision farming was the future of the agriculture sector.
“It is cultivating the land efficiently. Through new technology, farmers can easily study the terrain and crops to determine the right amount of water, sunlight and fertilisers needed.
“The entire system is computerised and the machineries can even be controlled from a mobile app,” he said.