‘S’wak Biovalley Pilot Plant a game changer in agro-sector’

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Kuek (right) briefs Uggah on the facility while others look on.

MIRI: The agriculture sector in Sarawak is expected to undergo drastic changes through the Sarawak Biovalley Pilot Plant facility (SBPP), says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.

He said this was one of the strategies to transform agriculture in the state, which has great potential in the (agricultural) sector.

“Technologies will help to increase productivity. Technologies will not only enhance quantity, quality and sustainability, but it will also make the agricultural sector more cost efficient.”

Uggah, who is also  Minister of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, visited the SBPP facility at Curtin University campus here yesterday, where he was briefed  by the R&D dean Prof Clem Kuek on the purpose of the facility, which serves as a bridge between lab scale studies and commercial production in bio-economy.

“The pilot plant provides an opportunity to scale up using industry-relevant processes and equipment, the bench scale results achieved by various research institutions and industry in Sarawak and rest of the country,” he said.

It also has a phytoprocess floor where the development of research on the extraction of compounds of commercial value from plants is conducted. Nearby is the bioprocess floor where the capabilities of microorganisms can be developed into products for the chemical, food and agricultural industries.

The RM60.6 million-SBPP project is managed by Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development with Curtin University Malaysia as adviser on the design and the equipping of the facility.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research will take over ownership of the facility in the fourth quarter of this year.