UM cultivates sustainability with rooftop aquaponic farm

The Star

Universiti Malaya’s Smart Engineering and Sustainable Urban Farm was officially launched last week (Jan 15) in the presence of the university’s top academicians, weighing in on long-term goals and expanding it beyond the initial scope.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00University Malaya's smart engineering and sustainable urban farm

00:06has been officially launched in the presence of the university's top academicians,

00:11weighing in on long-term goals and expanding it beyond the initial scope.

00:16Located on the rooftop of the chemical engineering department,

00:20the urban farm is the brainchild of senior lecturer Dr. Fathia Mohamedzuki.

00:25She set the wheels in motion by applying for the UM Living Labs grant

00:29under the purview of the UM Sustainability and Development Centre, UMSDC.

00:34Her proposal resulted in her being shortlisted and winning a RM30,000 grant.

00:40As far as she knows, Fathia said no other public university in the country

00:45has this sort of sustainable rooftop garden.

00:48So what we have here, we can produce fish, different kinds of fish as well,

00:53not only one, but we started with tilapia, and we have, you know, barb also,

00:58and coming soon is catfish.

01:01And then if you look at this, different kinds of vegetables,

01:05and also we're going to have fruits, different kinds of fruits as well,

01:09and other vegetables.

01:12So these are the things that we should introduce to our community.

01:18If possible, every single house, they have their own portable aquaponics system,

01:26so they can actually produce their own food, not only vegetables but also fish,

01:33just like what you have seen from our students' product.

01:37UMSDC founding director, associate professor Dr. Zida Fatima Mohamed

01:43said they will look into how to transform UM into a sustainable campus.

01:48We want to walk the talk, and I guess this Living Lab embodies that

01:53in the sense that it addresses a number of SDGs.

01:56SDG 2 on zero hunger, looking into SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities,

02:04SDG 12, sustainable consumption.

02:07So it addresses multiple areas of sustainability,

02:11and we see that it also offers a lot of areas for research, education and engagement.

02:18UM deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation,

02:22Professor Dr. Kaharuddin Dimyati,

02:24said the urban farm can be expanded beyond the Faculty of Engineering.

02:28I think what we need to do now,

02:31so we are now at the Faculty of Engineering,

02:33we need to expand over.

02:36I think the one that was mentioned now, it is under the SULAM project,

02:41SULAM programme.

02:42So SULAM is basically throughout the university.

02:45So once we are able to make these things happen,

02:48good prototype I would say,

02:51so then we can showcase to the university community.

02:54Besides providing areas for research, education and engagement,

02:58the urban farm has also become a communal space

03:02for students and faculty members to gather to de-stress.

03:05But the students themselves come and say,

03:08thank you doctor, you have developed this area,

03:11I came here every day because I was so stressed with my study,

03:16and then when I came here with those sounds of water and so on,

03:21we feel like de-stressed and we have our healing section here,

03:25something like that.

03:26So I don't have to ask everybody,

03:29but you can ask my students as well.

03:32They feel comfort and they feel like this conducive area

03:38really helps them in their study.

Category

Transcript

Recommended