SERDANG - Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has developed an innovative quail farming project over the past five years to support teaching and learning activities, research and community outreach.
The project developed through the Putra Agriculture Centre also involves university students and the external community through various training programmes related to quail farming, covering the entire industry chain from breeding to marketing.
Putra Agriculture Centre director Prof Dr Siti Zaharah Sakimin said that the project not only benefits students in terms of practical learning but also helps the community acquire skills to turn quail farming into a source of income.
"Quail farming is one of the easiest livestock to manage because its lifespan only requires about a month for us to produce from baby quails until they are ready for the market.
"We are also directly involved, from A to Z, from producing quail chicks to sales activities," she said.
She said that the innovation in producing feed using basic ingredients such as soy and corn, specifically formulated by UPM researchers, allows for the accelerated growth period of quails, thereby increasing production output.
"Feed is something that requires a very high cost. Therefore, agricultural officers and researchers from UPM used innovation with basic materials and then employed various specific combination mixtures, and we used those formulations to produce our own animal feed.
"With this, we can save on livestock feed costs by 50 to 60 per cent compared to commercial feed in the market and indirectly increase the farmers' profits, for example, the profit from selling quail meat can increase from around RM2.50 to more than RM3 each," she said.
The UPM quail farm, which covers an area of approximately 4.05 hectares, uses about half of its area for farming operations, with 600 breeding quails that can produce more than 500 eggs daily.
According to Siti Zaharah, the eggs will be graded either for sale as quail eggs or incubated to produce quail chicks, which will then be raised for meat.
UPM's quail products are marketed through the PutraMart platform, as well as promoted on social media such as Facebook and TikTok, and sold directly to residents around the campus.
"Basically, our products are organic and safe because we do not use any vaccines on the livestock, and the feed given is also produced by us," she said, adding that the quail products by UPM also received the Malaysian Good Agricultural Practice (MyGAP) certification.
In addition, Siti Zaharah said UPM has also trained approximately 151 trainees from the Armed Forces Ex-Servicemen Affairs Corporation (Perhebat) since 2023 through a structured six-month training programme.
The training programme not only provides basic exposure but also covers the entire industrial chain, including breeding, maintenance, production, and marketing across eight training plots such as sun melon, pineapple, corn, mushrooms, as well as raising quails, chickens, ruminants and freshwater fish.
Siti Zaharah also said that through the programme, participants interested in quail farming can purchase quail products or chicks at farm prices to resell or start their own farming as a source of income.
"Quail farming is also seen as a suitable commodity for new entrepreneurs because the harvesting period is faster, around 27 to 30 days, compared to chickens, taking about 46 days," she added. - BERNAMA