Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

With technology creating immense opportunities across key industries, Maxis has teamed up with Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) to collaborate and co-develop agricultural and agrifood based solutions. Both parties will leverage each other’s capabilities to integrate engineering and ICT in projects for a sustainable and competitive agricultural industry.

To formalise the partnership, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Maxis and MARDI recently at Menara Maxis. Signing on behalf of MARDI was its Director General, YBhg Dato’ Dr Mohamad Zabawi Abdul Ghani, while Maxis was represented by its Acting Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Claire Featherstone.

“The agricultural sector continues to be one of the most important growth engines for the national economy. Our partnership with Maxis is timely as we look forward to the modernisation of agricultural practices through the implementation of new approaches based on modern technology and sustainable development, in line with the IR4.0 and Sustainable Development Goals 2030,” said YBhg Dato’ Dr Ghani.

“Data integration and connectivity have become critical to advancements of industries, and there are many opportunities to enhance productivity and yield for local farmers through increased automation. The potential to modernise the agricultural sector is immense, and Maxis is excited to collaborate with MARDI to develop and co-pilot smart solutions through IoT applications and higher bandwidth to assist with everyday farming practices,” said Claire Featherstone.

As a pilot, Maxis and MARDI will work on precision farming for ginger at MARDI’s facilities across the country using automated systems to utilise fertigation with drip fertilizers, big data analytics, as well as 24/7 surveillance. The pilot aims to rollout the technology to more than 400 ginger agro-prenuers to enhance efficiency and equip MARDI with useful data on how to use technology in addressing food security challenges. Over the next two years, both parties will work on projects, including capacity-building programmes, research, seminars, conferences and pilot studies on smart agricultural solutions.

Maxis previously collaborated with MARDI in 2019 on advanced technological solutions powered by Maxis’s NB-IoT to help increase yields, resource efficiency and quality of grape farming produced at the MARDI Agro Park in Langkawi, Kedah, enabling farmers to remotely monitor their crop conditions through mobile apps. The partnership was also one of the nation’s then 5G Demonstration Projects.

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