Met A PhD Student From UPM !!!

A student studying for PhD at UPM called me for a small chat.

He wanted to attend my Swiftlet Farming Seminar badly however I asked him to catch up with me for some advice.

One of the most important question he asked me on how we can improve the swiftlet farming industry in Malaysia.

My answer to him is to get our PM to set up a special body or Lembaga dedicated to the Industry.

I called it as "Lembaga Kemajuan Perternakan Sarang Burung Walet" or LKPSBW.

This special body is similar to those that were done to Padi (Lembaga Padi Dan Beras Negara), Pineapple (Lembaga Nenas Negara), Palm Oil, Rubber (Lembaga Getah Negara) and many others.

This special Lembaga should be properly managed by expert in swiftlet industry and a national agenda must be set in pushing the industry to its highest level.

Adequate fund should be provided to help the industry.

The Lembaga should be allowed of perhaps create a raw nests collecting center.  Currently most BH owners are being played out by those middle man who squeeze all sellers for a minimum prize.

The Lembaga should hold the responsibility to push the total country output to meet the objective mentioned by the Ministry.

It will given the task to provide proper assistance to every person who are new and wanted to become a BH operator.

Each state or perhaps region will have a dedicated office managed by professional expert/officer in swiftlet farming.

The Lembaga shall work closely with all Universities in Malaysia on all matters especially on swiftlet research programs.

All papers that were completed shall be collected stored and produced for future research or used by swiftlet farmers.

Each year the Lembaga will organize exhibition on swiftlet farming with seminars on latest research done in swiftlet farming. All companies and associations dealing with swiftlet farming shall be invited to participate and display their products and activities.  The fee to rent a slot shall be make affordable.

Participants from foreign countries shall be invited to join the exhibition.

The Lembaga shall also arrange to organize exhibition about swiftlet farming overseas especially in China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

The Lembaga will also liase with other organization that can benefit the overall industry in Malaysia such as those in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and perhaps Cambodia.

The Lembaga should help in getting all swiftlet house be tagged.

The Lembaga should also be the centre of swiftlet farming excellent.

She should take a major role in finding new method to sell the bird nest such as in wellness, beauty or perhaps curing cancer.

The Lembaga will become a one stop center for any issuing of licencing, approval of BH/ Proccessing center's design, Tagging, repair of sick BH, Yearly inspection, purchasing of raw nests, export of process nests, and etc.

The Lembaga shall be given the authority to provide grant in any matters that are relevant to swiftlet farming industry.

BH owners who have problems in finding fund to revamp their BH will have suitable allocation for them with specific repayment scheme.

All swiftlet farmers association will have the proper backing from the lembaga so that more BH owners join their association.

Each swiftlet farmer association will be provided with adequate fund to conduct training to all their members.

The above are some of my ideas but I think I have written a 10 pages report on what the Lembaga can do to propel the industry to greater height.

He took my sincere advice and promised to look into a few areas that he can do within his capacity.

The first step right now is to check on the so call Center of Excellent on swiftlet farming set in UPM.