In line with the government’s recommendation to deal with the food insufficiency crisis, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Kelantan branch opened a new chapter when it used the iMistroom 2000 system (modular smart mushroom house), which is the first in Malaysia, to produce white oyster mushrooms in the Machang campus.
Dr Syerina Azlin Md Nasir, an information technology lecturer and member of the Internet of Things (IoT) mushroom research group, said the method developed between iMistroom and IoT can not only increase the production of mushrooms up to twice as compared to normal methods, but also helps students and the local community generate income to improve their standard of living.
“Contemporary mushroom houses that incorporate this IoT systems can provide more inclusive environmental control, cost-effective design and selection of building materials as well as easier maintenance processes.
“The incubator also gives an opportunity to students and the B40 group to get skills and guidance from us to start a business based on white oyster mushrooms,” she said when met by reporters at the UiTM campus, here today.
Elaborating, Dr Syerina Azlin said a total of 2,000 blocks of white oyster mushrooms can be put in the incubator, where each block can produce five to six harvests and a maximum of five kilogrammes per day for 1,000 blocks.
“We also hope to generate an income for the undergraduates and local community, the important thing is how the transfer of knowledge takes place as through this it will produce more white oyster mushroom entrepreneurs as the demand for white oyster mushrooms is very high in the market right now,” she said.
Meanwhile, final-year Bachelor in Business Administration Marketing student Wan Muhammad Syukri Wan Norjik, 25, who is also the project’s pioneer, said the iMistroom 2000 can be monitored and controlled from a distance because it is equipped with a ‘cooling pad’ to maintain the temperature at a constant rate, suitable and ultraviolet lamps that work to promote the growth and expansion of mushrooms.
“Apart from this, the system that was fixed can monitor the expansion between 85 and 95 per cent, and a temperature of between 23 and 30 degrees Celsius and, as such, improve the quality of mushroom products as recommended by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI),” he said.
Wan Muhammad Syukri, who also runs a conventional grey oyster mushroom business at his home with sales reaching around RM10,000 a month, also hopes that more students and the B40 group will venture into this business because the results are very lucrative and thus can improve the country’s food security.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency