Services/Support
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BIOMETRY AND COMPUTERISATION SERVICES The section provides both statistical advisory and analytical services as well as catering for the Information Technology planning and development of the Centre. Statistical advisory and analytical services include the use of appropriate designs and analytical needs of experiments on crops and the analyses of variance in experiments. IT services are the development of IT facilities for ARC to improve office automation, information access, sharing and transfer through networking. The section is fully involved in the development of Expert Systems for crops. The Expert System for pepper crop protection on pests, diseases and nutritional disorders was released in 2003 as X-Crop on pepper. Similar Expert Systems are being developed for fruits such as melon, citrus, pineapple and rambutan. | Top |
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The Crop Protection Services include the Entomological and Plant Pathological Services. The Entomological Service is provided by the Entomology Section. This section was established when the Centre was born to provide identification, advisory and protection services on crops as well as to carry out economic entomology research. Sericulture had been aggressively pursued in the past. The Entomology Laboratory has an Insect Reference Collection of more than 10,000 specimens and laboratory facilities to cater for Insect biological and pesticide Test studies. The section also carries out Integrated Pests Management research and apiculture. The Plant Pathological Service is provided by the Plant Pathology Section at the Centre. The main objective of the Plant Pathology Section is to carry out research on disease management of agricultural crops, with the aim to reduce crop losses in Sarawak. The research covers the etiology, epidemiology and management of the disease. Research is also carried out to develop disease diagnostic protocols. The Section also provides diagnostic and advisory services to growers, agricultural extension staff, and research agronomists and botanists in the Agricultural Research Branch. The Plant Pathology Section has a research and diagnostic laboratory, plant houses and field experimental plots. Experiments are carried out in the laboratory, plant houses and farmers’ land. The Plant Pathology Laboratory is well equipped with facilities for both conventional and molecular research and diagnosis. The scope of the research and diagnostic work covers pepper, rice, fruits, vegetables, field crops, tree crops and palms. | Top |
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The chemistry laboratory located at the Agriculture Research Centre, Semongok is the main laboratory of the Department of Agriculture. It provides analytical services on soil, plant, fertiliser and other agricultural materials. It is equipped with modern facilities and equipments and has the capacity to handle 10,000 samples annually. The laboratory has been accredited by SAMM (Skim Akreditasi Makmal Malaysia) under the ISO/IEC 17025 Laboratory Accreditation Scheme since 13 August 1999. The laboratory provides analytical services support for research on crops and soils in the State. In addition, the Laboratory also checks the quality of Agricultural Schemes Inputs and the contents of heavy metals of inputs and products of farms under the SALM (Skim Amalan baik Ladang Malaysia). | Top |
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This laboratory was established in 1990 under a foreign aid programme to provide data on pesticide residues present in agricultural produce, particularly vegetables and fruits, and soils. The laboratory is gazetted under the Food Act 1983 to carry out analysis on food samples for the Ministry of Health. The laboratory monitors current status of pesticide residue in vegetables by random sampling and carrying out analyses for samples from vegetable farms throughout Sarawak. Under the Departmental Vegetable Certification Scheme (VCS), issues and renewals of VCS Certificates require the checking and the monitoring of pesticide residues of vegetables of the applying or certified farms by this laboratory.
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Research officers are stationed strategically throughout the State to assist in the transfer of technologies to farmers. They are involved in project planning, on-farm field verification trials of advanced technology and crops/crop varieties, demonstration plots, training of farmers as well as participating in joint-trials with research officers of the Headquarters. The main trust of this Section is to foster a closer linkage between research and extension in order to facilitate speedy transfer of new crops and technologies to the farming communities.
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