SERDANG – A course involving plant cloning using tissue culture techniques was held for 3 days from 16 to 18 October 2018. These courses were well received by local entrepreneurs involved in cultivation of orchids, fruits, aquatic and nursery. This yearly course was extended due to the encouraging demand from 23 to 25 October 2018 and attended by lecturers and students from Kolej Vokasional Pertanian, Teluk Intan, Perak.

Plant tissue culture is a method of producing clonal plant material as identical to its mother plant and has uniform growth. The uniformity of growth is one of the important things in assisting the management of crop production to ensure the seedlings grow uniformly and mature at approximately the same time.

The objective of the course was to provide practical training of basic plant tissue culture techniques to the community, especially agricultural entrepreneurs, government agencies, private agencies, public universities, private universities and communities interested in venturing into biotechnology. This course is also one of the activities that can bring the university and the community closer as well as to help the community especially those who venture into the agricultural industry and enhance the community or industrial collaboration network.

The advantage of this course is that the participants could learn basic practical techniques for making formulations. They were encouraged to bring their own plant samples for development of formulas. Participants were also trained to create subcultures, preparing media, transfer tissue culture plantlets from bottle to polybag, plant culture video and visit to Conservatory Park UPM. In order to complete the course the participants also attended 2 lectures on plant tissue culture and can bring home their practical materials. Course will be continued annually in line with the aspiration of university and also due to the demand for this course.

For more information on Plant Tissue Culture Course, please contact us: Puan Julia Abdul Aziz: 03-89472198 / julia_a@upm.edu.my, Puan Noor Hazwani Abdul Rahim: 03-89472130 / hazwani_ar@upm.edu.my, En. Rishzuan Talib: 03-89472175 / rishzuan@upm.edu.my atau En. Muhammad Hajarul Aswad Md Shahir: 03-89472130 / mhaswd@upm.edu.my.

By Julia Abdul Aziz

Date of Input: 31/01/2019 | Updated: 10/02/2021 | azah