Exploration of the Agriculture Industry in Collaboration with UPM & Agropreneur Harvest Market

The agriculture industry is one of the most important drivers that shape the economy of our country. Recent news about the shortage of certain agricultural products and the over-dependence on imports to supply agricultural produce to Malaysian consumers has highlighted the need to address this issue. To increase the awareness among our students, we collaborated with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) on this project.

The objectives of this project are for students to: i) gain practical experience in sustainable farming techniques, handling and marketing of agriculture products, ii) understand the importance of agriculture industry in the economy and its impacts on society, and iii) develop marketing and selling skills relevant to the agriculture business.

On Monday (20 May), about 210 semester 3 DBA students from the main campus and Velocity went on a field trip to UPM to observe and learn the process of planting and harvesting crops/poultry such as mushroom, various green vegies, chilies, egg plants, duck and quail eggs and meat. During this trip, students not only observed the process but actually ‘got their hands dirty’ by participating in various activities such as planting seeds, harvesting crops, collecting eggs, sorting the produce based on quality and grades, packaging, cleaning the cages, etc. The produces were then bought from UPM to be sold in Agropreneur Harvest Market that will be held in Sunway campus.

After the trip, our project continued with a bazaar event on Thursday, 23 May and, Friday, 24 May at Sunway Boulevard. During this bazaar, students transformed the agriculture products bought from UPM into saleable menus or edible foodstuffs. Some groups also sold the crops/poultry raw to customers within Sunway campus – students, lecturers, and staff, as well as external customers.

The cash profits from the sales totaling RM2437, were donated to Food Aid Foundation (FAF). The FAF Team was very grateful for our students’ contribution to their cause through this group assignment project and they hope for more assistance from the Sunway community in the future. The project was successful in achieving its objectives and also supported Sunway’s efforts in promoting SDG 1 - No Poverty and SDG 2 - Zero Hunger by raising awareness of the importance of agriculture industry to the country economics.

On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to extend our appreciation to those who showed their support by attending and buying food sold at our Agropreneur Harvest Market. Together, we made this project meaningful and memorable. We hope for your continuous supports in our future student projects.