Innovation Report: Please provide some background on where Malaysia finds itself in its development journey and how UPM ties into that. What would you consider to be the DNA of your organization at this time?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: Malaysia is moving towards developed nation status, but there are still many gaps that universities can help address through our higher education system. As one of the biggest universities in the country, UPM is obliged to provide the best living and learning experience for our students so that they become graduates who can help the nation address problems and become examples for the rest of the population in terms of economic development and prosperity.

UPM was originally known as Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, the Agriculture University of Malaysia, before changing its name in 1995. My job as the new Vice Chancellor is to regroup our efforts so that the DNA of the university, which was primarily focused on agriculture, forestry, commodity plantation, is not lost, while also introducing new strategic differentiating areas. We are reflecting on our past achievements and seeing how we can harness our strengths as a team to help the nation and beyond, as food security is a global problem. At the same time, we cannot run from other SDG areas, especially as UPM’s DNA in agriculture and plantation also helps with the ecosystem and addressing climate change.

Innovation Report: In addition to teaching, UPM has key national initiatives such as the Putra Science Park. Could you give us some insight into the university’s approach to technology transfer and commercial initiatives, and how partnerships with industry are built?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: Historically, UPM has been strong in commercializing our products through the conventional way, from research to development and then through an incubator. The Putra Science Park plays an incubator role as well as a technology management office role. In Malaysia’s innovation ecosystem, there is still a big “Death Valley” gap that the government has been trying to bridge for many years, but we have yet to find a successful model.

UPM has created its own innovation hub where we try to bring our laboratory-ready products to the next level, either through hand-holding with startups that we incubate to come up with better versions of their product or upscale, or by looking for venture capital and angel investors to invest in our products. We have had several success stories that are now global players, primarily in agriculture and veterinary products. Moving forward, we are making sure that our research is relevant and impactful.

One of the challenges is the pressure to publish in universities, with many stopping at publication. I feel that for UPM to give more impact, all its research work must be beyond publication. Publication is part of the process to disseminate findings, but there must be activities beyond that. We have put two strategies in place: one is to be appreciated by the community, as a lot of our products will go to the community given our focus on agriculture and food; the second is thriving the industry, elevating our status as a university to be seen as a partner to industry. Currently, the university needs industry to help finance and bridge the innovation gap, but we hope to turn that around so that industries are waiting for us to provide new ideas and innovations, similar to the relationship many world leading universities have with industry.

Innovation Report: What would you consider UPM’s flagship projects to be, particularly in areas of research? If you could pick two or three projects that excite you or have had an impact in Malaysia, what would you choose?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: One of the early things we have done since I came in is to develop a blueprint for UPM in terms of food security. The intention is to assemble experts from the university to identify the entire food security ecosystem and identify gaps that still exist, requiring intervention, research, capacity building, and whatever else is needed to help the nation combat the food security problem. The blueprint provides a wealth of evidence-based information on real gaps that need to be overcome, allowing our researchers to focus on areas suitable for their expertise and interests. If they are able to address the problem statements through their research, we know we are progressing towards a more sustainable food security system in the country.

In terms of specific projects, UPM has had great success in the veterinary field, developing vaccines for chickens, ruminant animals, and more. These animal vaccines are among our successful commercialization products and we continue to come up with new ones. We are proud to have a very competitive and acknowledged medical veterinary school with our own veterinary hospital to help us work as a complete system.

Another area is rice, our staple food, where our plantations have been subject to challenges due to climate change, resistance to diseases, and flooding. Our scientists have come up with new variants of rice that are now being tested in our living labs and pilot projects, sponsored by financiers and banks. We are also working closely with state governments to experiment with our variants and show that they not only improve yield but are more easily adapted to the challenges in the rice fields. Of course, there are challenges in the rice ecosystem in Malaysia due to reliance on imported seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and other issues, which we are also addressing under the blueprint.

We are also looking at technology, with our successful and competitive engineering faculty not only focusing on agricultural engineering but other forms of engineering. Under our true north approach, we are trying to use their good work as an enabler and technology to help with our agriculture and food security objectives. Additionally, our medical faculty is focusing on niche areas like stroke care, applying robotics in healthcare diagnosis and intervention at our young teaching hospital.

Innovation Report: Food security and the development of the agricultural sector are global challenges, but universities have a vital role to play in integrating indigenous knowledge and local knowledge into future plans. How do you see UPM’s part in ensuring that indigenous knowledge is integrated and that the adoption of technology is done responsibly, with the human at the center?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: I have noticed that many of our sustainable agricultural practices come from indigenous knowledge, which I think we have not given due credit to. I have started a team to gather as much knowledge and information on local and indigenous practices, as we work a lot with indigenous people and local farmers. It is important to remind ourselves of this, and in a recent talk in Japan, I gave a talk on humanizing technology.

In Malaysia, we have sometimes been subject to technology push rather than demand needs, becoming a dump site for technology because of our resources. This has to change for something as important as food security, poverty alleviation, climate change – the technology must be there to serve us. I’m trying to bring this understanding to the team at UPM when looking into technology. We must bridge the digital divide and the economic divide.

For example, when assessing the extent of precision agriculture in Malaysia, I was surprised to see that the durian sector is using a lot of precision technology to improve industry performance and enable exports. But when we talk to rice farmers, we don’t see that possibility. This is the bridge we need to reach fast, and I think UPM can find answers by bringing down the cost of technology, improving appreciation and knowledge of the technology, and understanding how it can serve the purpose of our agricultural ecosystem.

Innovation Report: How confident are you about the prospects of Malaysia and the role UPM can play in its future development?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: I think we are hopeful that we can produce the future talent to support agriculture and food security. We are also re-strategizing our approach to capacity building, not only for university students who are early in their careers but also extending it to practitioners, farmers, and trying to educate the nation. We are getting a lot of support at the moment from financiers for living labs, as UPM has vast lands. We are using living labs as a strategy not only for students in theoretical education but also to invite practitioners, especially those in their forties who are unfortunate not to have been given a chance to progress in their lives and be more productive.

We are also training ex-army veterans now, who retire early in Malaysia and usually struggle after retirement. We have worked with the association of veterans to give them training on agriculture, supported by the Agro bank, which has been very successful in helping them understand not only the agricultural side but also the business side, distribution, and financing so that they can be empowered to be more independent. This is a strategy of going beyond the classroom to real life, which is why we also have a strategy to provide the best learning and living experience for our students.

Innovation Report: Is there any message you would like to send to the international community looking at Malaysia and UPM at this time, particularly in relation to opportunities that might exist in the future?

Prof. Ahmad Farhan: UPM is resolved and committed to play its role as a higher education entity to bring about a better future for everybody through an agriculture and food security approach. It’s going to be a holistic approach and we hope that we can not only achieve the targets of the country but also help the entire world to achieve them together.