By Auliyaa Putri Ulfana
SERDANG, 18 Dec – As many as 150 students representing a number of teams took part in Vivarium Festival 2017 and displayed their creativity and idea by producing many designs and exhibitions in the vivarium.
Vivarium, which is an ex-situ conservation is a process of conserving organisms either flora or fauna outside its natural habitat usually in an enclosure to ensure the safety of the plants and animals for the purpose of observation and research.
This festival was organised by the Faculty of Agriculture of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof Dr. Abdul Shukor Jurami said that the program is one of the life-long learning components as the students were able to learn something new.
“Vivarium acts as one of the mediums to instill understanding and the concept of sustainability through preservation and conservation activities of agricultural resources, biodiversity care and maintainance of various genetic resources,” he added.
“It also encourages agricultural skills through the process of planning, constructing, maintaining and managing a controlled ecosystem. The Vivarium Festival is able to boost creativity and innovation while at the same time impart values and soft skills,” he explained further while officiating the Vivarium Festival 2017, here.
Vivarium can be defined as an ecosystem built in an enclosure with controlled environment for the purpose of preserving and conserving biodiversity resources through agricultural perspectives where every unique species is taken care of specifically.
The advisor of the program, Dr Mohd Firdaus Ismail said that he was awed with the determination and creativity displayed by the students in the production of the vivarium.
Mohamad Izzat Azamuddin, a member of the winning team said that his team applied a perspective that combined both new and used materials to produce the vivarium, which included the use of river pebbles from Terengganu. - UPM
