Serdang, 12 June – Quality management based on a good planting management system is n efforts to raise awareness among herbal planters, the Centre for Extension, Entrepreneurship and Professional Advancement (APEEC) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) together with Herbs Development Office (HDO), Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture-based Industry (MoA) organized a seminar on Good Agriculture Collection and Practices for Quality Herbal Raw Materials.

The two-day seminar discussed the elements of Good Agriculture and Collection Practices (GACP) and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure the quality of raw materials.

Deputy Secretary General of MOA, Dato Raihan Syarif expressed the hope that some of the SOP samples presented could be developed further for future reference.“I believe the current herbal industry is experiencing an evolution from a small industry to an industry that is worth billions,” he said during the seminar opening, held here.

Meanwhile, APEEC Director, Assoc. Prof. Lar Dr. Noordin Abd Rahman said the seminar aimed at giving the participants some exposure on the techniques and technology used in planting, harvesting and the handling of post harvesting.

He said the pioneer programme had gathered multiple parties in the industry to create an SOP on quality herbal planting.

“The fast growing industry has led to the increase of raw materials. Even so, the supply of raw materials is not consistent,  and low in both quality and quantity.

“I urge all agencies including universities and the herbal industry players to continue to join forces and work towards producing quality products for commercialization,” he said.

Sharing their ideas at the seminar were  17 presenters from UPM, MOA, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI).

News prepared by Muhamad Najkhan Mazlan, 03-89466130 and foto by Noor Azreen Awang 03-89466199

Date of Input: | Updated: | hairul_nizam