The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) recently joined TFNet as an Associate Member.
With over 50 years of productive research contribution in Malaysia, MARDI is a leading agricultural research agency that has been mandated to conduct research and development in agriculture, food, and agro-based industries. MARDI also provides technical services and entrepreneurship development in food, agriculture, and other fields related to the industry.
MARDI has played an instrumental role in the establishment of TFNet when the proposal for the setting up a tropical fruit network was discussed and later adopted during the 1st FAO Intergovernmental Group (IGG) meeting on Bananas and Tropical Fruits in Gold Coast, Australia on 4th-8th May 1999. With Malaysia becoming the host of the network on tropical fruits, MARDI generously provided an office for the TFNet headquarters in its complex in Serdang, Malaysia.
Through the years, MARDI and TFNet have enjoyed a cordial working relationship with numerous activities of interest organized collaboratively for the benefit of the tropical fruit industry in Malaysia and globally. Significant activities of the past include the collaboration on a three-year technical assistance on post-harvest handling and processing of fruits in the Syrian Arab Republic that was conducted with funding from the Malaysian government, the organizing of various national and international level, workshops and trainings, in addition to pertinent exchanges of knowledge and expertise since 2000.
The suggestion to enhance the MARDI-TFNet association was brought up by MARDI’s Director General, Dr. Mohamad Roff Mohd. Noor during TFNet’s 13th Board of Trustees meeting held at Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on 23rd September 2019. This was then cemented through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between both organizations in 31st October 2019 to boost efforts for conducting mutual activities of interest. The MOU aims to strengthen, facilitate, develop, encourage, and promote joint collaboration between the two organizations in relation to production, consumption, and trade of the tropical fruits industry.
Among the activities that are in the pipeline are the organizing of the National Symposium on Tropical Fruits, expected to take place in early 2021 and an international training course on pineapple tissue culture which will benefit TFNet member countries.
For more information on MARDI and their activities, please visit their official website at: https://www.mardi.gov.my/
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