Agriculture Dept develops GeoTanaman system to empower farmers

SEREMBAN, March 28 (Bernama) --  The GeoTanaman system developed by the  Agriculture Department is able to assist farmers to carry out agricultural activities and market their products more efficiently, said director-general Datuk Zahimi Hassan.

He said the service oriented architecture system which could be accessed via the web and mobile is able to manage, update and analyse information on crop production as well as land use data for all states in Peninsular Malaysia.

“The main focus of the GeoTanaman System is to empower the economy of agro-entrepreneurs, with the emphasis to provide quality and safe food to consumers,” he said at the Negeri Sembilan Malaysian Family Aspirations GeoTanaman Tour Programme here today.

“In addition, the system was developed to overcome the dumping of local vegetables and fruits, he said adding that information on farms, plantations and farmers throughout Peninsular Malaysia would be digitally mapped in this system.

Zahimi said through this system, the Department of Agriculture would act as the facilitator in efforts to increase the country's food crop yield to enable to penetrate foreign markets through production analysis specifically at farm locations as well as production planning based on local and international demand.

Direct market matching or e-commerce between farmers and exporters can also be achieved online through this cost-effective, user-friendly system which is accessible to all stakeholders including other departments or agencies. 

He said 1,200 farmers in the peninsula have been targeted to use the system by June and all industry players in the food crop sector, including wholesalers, fertiliser and pesticide shop operators were also encouraged to register for the system.

Meanwhile, he said the department supported the efforts of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in offering its expertise in alternative food research projects for chickens  to replace soybean as a source of protein in chicken bran.

"We support proposals that can reduce the cost of production but studies must be conducted whether they are suitable or not. We will accept initiatives that can produce products that are comparable to the original product, namely soy, corn and so forth,” he said.

Earlier, the media reported that UPM was prepared to offer its expertise in alternative food research projects for chickens by using insect larvae or black soldier fly (BSF) as a long-term solution to the issue of rising chicken prices in the country.

-- BERNAMA