By: Nurul Ezzaty Mohd Azhar
Photo: Mohammad Izrul Abdul Jabar
PUCHONG, July 4 – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is introducing mushroom feed as an alternative to corn feed for farm animals by cultivating oyster mushrooms under its Photovoltaic (PV) solar infrastructure.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Chan Foong Hin, said continuous innovation efforts such as introducing the mushroom feed, known as MyShroomFeed, will help address concerns faced by farmers in Malaysia and reduce dependency on imported sources.
"The ministry is looking forward to the continued involvement of UPM as a national agricultural research university in finding solutions for various current issues in agriculture, such as the need for alternative supplies of livestock feed, security of egg and meat supply, and scarcity of agricultural land," he said after inaugurating the Integrated Agrivoltaic Trail in UPM today.
Meanwhile, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Vice Chancellor, Dato' Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman, hoped the efforts by UPM researchers in producing MyShroomFeed will help reduce dependence on imports of corn grain and main protein ingredients and create job opportunities for the local community.
Project leader, Ir. Dr. Mohammad Effendy Ya'acob said the oyster mushroom root dregs and their blocks are alternatives to livestock feed for chickens, ducks, rabbits, and goats due to their high nutritional value in Crude Protein (CP), and the mushrooms have a short harvest period.
"The harvesting period for oyster mushrooms is seven days after the blocks mature, and the cultivation method is easier than grain corn which requires about 120 days," he said at the UPM Solar Farm today.
In addition, UPM researchers have also developed the 'Agrivoltaic Mushroom Tunnel', the first innovation in the world for large-scale oyster mushroom cultivation under a solar infrastructure.
The oyster mushroom cultivation in the 2-hectare Solar Puchong Farm has the potential to house around 600,000 block units distributed into ten cultivation zones and could yield 60 tons of harvest.
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) start-up company, Putra Science Park (PSP), UPM, AgroPV Integrated SB, and the Malaysian Society of Agricultural and Food Engineers (MSA) have formed a strategic collaboration in developing the Integrated Agrivoltaic Trail solar system technology as a platform and Proof of Concept (PoC) which integrates agriculture in the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems.
