Sabah-UPM collaboration to develop dairy valley

Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Government will collaborate with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) to study, plan and develop a dairy valley in Keningau.

In a bilateral discussion with the university on Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan proposed that the facility centre be built in Tambunan 

He said the dairy valley would be supported by several satellite farms, to be developed on a grazing reserve land nearby.

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“Currently, Tambunan’s grazing reserve land has a total acreage of 22,500 acres, not including Bingkor and Liawan within the Keningau municipality,” he said in a statement, Monday.

Jeffrey, who is also State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, hoped the project would get off the ground as soon as possible.

He said the dairy valley project in Sabah is one of five dairy valleys under the National Dairy Industry Development Programme which aims to ensure self-sufficiency in domestic fresh milk production by 2025.

“UPM has the technical expertise in developing the dairy valley through its Dairy Centre of Excellence. 

“The university also runs a successful dairy farm and has recently collaborated with Farm Fresh Sdn Bhd to strengthen the domestic dairy production capacity through the UPM-Farm Fresh Dairy Farming Industry Centre of Excellence (ICoE),” he added.

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The university, represented by its Deputy Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idrus, agreed to provide technical assistance to the Sabah Government by preparing a feasibility study for the proposed dairy valley.

However, the meeting, which was the first between the Sabah Government and UPM, did not set any deadline on when the report of the study would be completed for evaluation.

Other than the dairy valley, the meeting also discussed a potential collaboration to study the possibility of building a pulp and paper plant in Sabah from kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) bast fibres.

The university also offered technical support as the Sabah Government aims to create the new Sabah Swiftlet Board to regulate and manage the swiftlet industry in the State.

The creation of the board was announced last month by Jeffrey as the State Government is hoping to capitalise on the increasingly popular and lucrative industry.

Also present at the meeting were Sabah Department of Veterinary (DVS) Director Dr Peter Lee and UPM Institute of Agriculture and Food Policy Studies Director Dr Shaufique Fahmi Ahmad Sidique.

Jeffrey also made a courtesy call to UPM Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Roslan Sulaiman during which they discussed issues deliberated at the earlier meeting as well as issues relating to the agricultural industry in Sabah.