SWS Capital Berhad subsidiary MATA Aerotech has been officially nominated by FELCRA Berhad to carry out agriculture spraying for paddy crop using UAS/drone technology at the paddy estate in FELCRA Seberang Perak. The latest news comes as SWS Capital Berhad continues to make good progress with its recent ventures into Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and Artificial Intelligence (A.I) technologies.
The latest appointment was a follow-up from the July 2019 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between FELCRA Berhad and MATA Aerotech. FELCRA Berhad plans to adopt the Smart Agriculture Model in its efforts to improve the quality of life for more than 100,000 FELCRA farmers.
“As Malaysia is still very much an agriculture-based country, our immediate focus is to explore and capture more opportunities within the agriculture sector. MATA Aerotech has been actively engaging organisations and farmers involved in the agriculture sector, including paddy, palm oil, vegetables and fruits,” explained Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Tan Khoon Hai, SWS Capital Executive Chairman.
“Our engagement is partly commercial and mostly educational, as we still need to educate the organisations and farmers on the value of drone and A.I technology. Overall, we have received favourable feedback and shall continue to pursue these opportunities.”
Under the latest agreement, FELCRA has allocated 1,557 hectares of its paddy estate for MATA Aerotech to use drone technology for agriculture spraying, which is more than 45% of its overall paddy estate. FELCRA Seberang Perak, which is the first and largest paddy estate in Malaysia, shall create history as the use of drone technology for paddy planting on such a large scale is unprecedented.
MATA Aerotech recently started using drone technology for agriculture spraying for paddy crops in an area of nearly 200 hectares within FELCRA Seberang Perak. The project has been successful in greatly reducing the spraying time, number of human labour required, as well as volume of spraying material. This follows the objective of Smart Agriculture Model of ‘reducing input, increasing output’.
Moving forward, MATA Aerotech and FELCRA will be using drone and Artificial Intelligence technology to incorporate timely data analytics into FELCRA’s plantation management and operations. The move is expected to yield faster and more accurate results of the crops’ growth and health.
According to the Agricultural Transformation and Inclusive Growth: The Malaysian Experience report from the World Bank, Malaysia’s agricultural productivity is less than half of high income countries. The report highlighted the urgent need for transformation, and stated that no country has made a transformation to high income status without successful agricultural transformation.
SWS plans to diversify its earnings base and seize opportunities in the current Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) era. With proven technology in hand, SWS is confident that drone and A.I technology will be a game changer in the agriculture sector in Malaysia, moving towards a sustainable Smart Agriculture Model driven by IR 4.0. The technology is poised to uplift the income of organisations and farmers.
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