Malaysian, Japanese Institutions To Jointly Conduct Aquaculture Research

SERDANG (Selangor, Malaysia), Aug 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysian and Japanese institutions will jointly conduct a US$2.86 million (RM11.8 million) research in sustainable aquaculture which will enable the researchers to extract high value compound from useful micro algae. The partnership is under the Japanese Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development Program, a Japanese government programme that promotes international joint research. Among the high value compound which could be extracted from the useful micro algae is antioxidant which is the main substance for health, beauty and anti-aging products. Malaysian universities involved in the project are Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) as the leading university, Universiti Selangor and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Meanwhile, the Japanese institutions involved are Soka University as the leading university, The University of Tokyo, National Institute of Environmental Studies and Tokyo Institute of Technology. In a media conference on the research Monday, UPM Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr Mohd Fauzi Ramlan said the duration for the research is five years which is from Jan 2016 to Dec 2020. Japan International Cooperation Agency Fisheries Sector Senior Advisor, Shunji Sugiyama said the research team will identify private aquaculture ponds throughout Malaysia for such projects. "The research is not only limited to extracting antioxidant. It can be any useful compound from the micro algae and we will pattern the research for mass production and to be commercialised by the private sectors," he said. --BERNAMA