Moving into Green Technology

Livestock is one of the key areas of agricultural sector, which contributes billions of trade to the economy. Besides providing us our protein source, the industry also creates thousands of job opportunities and entrepreneurs in Malaysia. A sizeable portion of the livestock industry is made up of pig farmers.  

One of the major problems faced by the owners of the farms is waste disposal from the animals. Environmental pollution associated with intense farming becomes a major constraint to the growth of the industry. Drastic moves have been taken whereby many farmers were forced to shut down due to their inability to address this problem. “When farms are shut down, the owners face huge loss which has huge impact on the economy as well. Thus, more efforts are urgently needed to develop appropriate systems for containment and disposal of these wastes” said Mr Chong Yeow Yang who is the CEO of Neubio Technologies, one of the frontiers in bioremediation. Neubio, a BioNexus status company develops technology to treat and manage waste using effective microbes (EM) mainly in the livestock and poultry industry.



Fermentation bed composed of saw dust and EM		  

According to Mr Chong, most of the farms in Malaysia use conventional methods such as oxidation pond to treat the animal waste. The disadvantages of the conventional technologies are the slow rate of decomposing of the waste which produces foul smell, production of green house gases and waste being channelled into surrounding rivers which contributes to pollution. Nevertheless, farm owners in many other developed countries and China do not face such problem as they have adopted proper waste management system” said Mr Chong. “While visiting several farms in China, the clean environment and the odourless caging system caught our attention. We found out that their caging system has been bedded with saw dust which contains microbes. The microbes decompose the animal waste, thus the awful smell from the animal waste could be eliminated” he added. 


Upon returning from China in 2009, Mr Chong decided to adopt the Chinese technology which is known as Fermentation Bed Farming Technology (FBFT) which has been reported to be very effective in reducing the smell, number of flies and amount of waste water produced. The animal dung is actively decomposed into organic nitrogen sources by the microorganisms that present in the fermentation bed, which are become readily available to the microorganisms for their growth and multiplication. Therefore, the problem of waste can be managed in a confined environment. “Besides creating a clean and odourless environment, the bed which is made of saw dust provides comfort to the animals and as a result, they remain active. Therefore the welfare of the animals is also taken care of” said Mr Chong.

Currently, the microbes used in the technology are being imported from China. “We are looking into plans to set up a plant in Malaysia to culture these microbes. We will culture the most suitable and non-harmful microbes that can live under the Malaysian climate” said Mr Chong. Neubio is also working closely with Assoc. Prof. Dr Foo Hooi Ling and Assoc, Prof. Dr. Loh Teck Chwen from Universiti Putra Malaysia and Dr Ramli Mohd Noor from Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) to further develop the fermentation bed farming technology to suit the local environment. Mr Chong added by saying that one of the advantages of producing our own microbes and technology is reduction in the cost of managing and maintaining the technology. As a result, the technology becomes affordable, thus can even be used by resource-poor farmers.

Neubio has been working closely with several designated pig farms and chicken farms located in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca. In most cases, the farms are approached through their respective farmers association. “Up to date, response towards the technology has been positive and promising. Farmers who have started using the technology informed us that waste management system is much more efficient with FBFT, an environmentally friendly biotechnology application which decomposes the animal waste within a shorter period of time as compared to the conventional methods” claimed Mr Johary Rejab, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Neubio. “Nevertheless, one of the challenges often faced by the farmers is to manage and maintain the technology as it requires some knowledge in the field of science and technology. Therefore we are looking into simpler methods to manage the system which does not require much technical skills” said Mr Johary. Besides that, Neubio also organizes workshops to educate the farmers on the usage of this technology. “Researchers who are involved in the project are usually invited to lecture on the application of the technology” added Mr Johary. 


Besides livestock industry, Neubio is also working closely with the Fisheries Development Authority in Kuantan, Endau and Lumut to develop proper waste disposal system using EM in fishing vessels. “One of the difficulties faced by fishermen involved in deep sea fishing is to have a proper toilet system. Therefore most of the waste from the workers in the fishing vessels will flow into the sea water, contaminating their catch. This will then degrade the quality of the fishes and becomes risky to be consumed” said Mr Johary.  

“Through a proper waste management system in the vessels, they will be able to conserve the quality of their catch in order to comply with international standards such as the European Union’s. The project is undergoing trials but we are hoping to see a positive outcome from it” said Mr Johary. Mr Johary added by saying that with a better quality of catch, the fishermen will also be able to export their products and increase their revenue as fish is one of the most affordable source of protein in the market.  

With so much efforts being taken by Neubio, it is hoped that Malaysian livestock and fishery industry will undergo the transformation to become environmentally friendly. Thus, biotechnology can be equated to green technology! 

Chicken farm with the application of FBFT 

Pig farm with the application of FBFT

For more information, please visit the Neubio website.




                                               By Thinakaran Chandran for MABIC