Setting New Standard in Malaysia’s Agarwood Plantation through Agriculture 4.0

29^th March 2022 – The ultimate vision for Agriculture 4.0 is to modernize farms through the adoption of digital and connectivity of technologies which enable enterprises to have a greater control over their plantations and operations. Seizing on this opportunity, Dadvance Agarwood Solutions Sdn. Bhd. has signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MOC) with Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) and XTS Technologies Sdn. Bhd. to develop and implement a cloud-based digital solutions within the Agarwood plantation.

On the other hand, to enabling Agriculture 4.0 or “The Internet of Agarwood” – that is, by adopting the intelligent use and analysis of data throughout the supply chain, entailing the reduction of costs and the improvement of the quality and traceability of agarwood products. The framework of this strategic partnership will focus on the development of precision agriculture consist of the use of big data, the internet of things (IoT) in sensors field, the Fifth-generation technology network (5G), factory automation, and traceability through the application of blockchain technology.

The integration of State-of -the-Art technology into DAAS existing Joint-Venture program and ecosystem enable the company to streamline its services effectively by using data and technology. Malaysia had planted a total of 2.2 million agarwood trees worth RM 6billion registered with MTIB (as of year 2021).

The main challenges faced in this industry is the maximize the forming of agarwood resin effectively and consistently. Hence, by integrating Agriculture 4.0 with its ready proven inoculation vaccine which can maximize agarwood resin formation up-to 85% per tree, along with the company current portfolio of 40,000 agarwood trees with an approximate revenue of RM 120 million; the company is optimistic about its contribution to the current global demand which is currently worth $ USD 32 billion and to double its figures by $USD 64 billion by year 2029.

This strategic partnership will consist of the development and implementation of Precision Agriculture Solutions which comprises of intelligent capacitive sensors and hardware for data collection in the Aquilaria plantation such as temperature, humidity, climate, soil, water level etc. to optimize trees’ growth. By analyzing these data, it enables DAAS to analyze positive patterns contributing to the growth of the Aquilaria trees. Hence, to use these data to other plantation sites across Malaysia and for the future plantations. The first implementation of this precision agriculture will take place in a 150 acres site in Temerloh, Pahang with a revenue projection of RM 300 million.

According to Mr.David Liew – Founder & Managing Director of Dadvance Agarwood Solutions – As a leading Agarwood inoculation tech provider, we are proud to be amongst the first company in the agarwood plantation to integrate a full spectrum of agriculture 4.0 to improve not only our Aquilaria trees growth, but also to improve our processes, and also to drive greater business efficiencies in the face of rising populations and climate change.

Traceability system capitalizing on blockchain technology will be part of the development which enable all parties to locate products through any stages of operations involved in the manufacture, processing, distribution, and handling of agarwood. It can be instrumental in optimizing the supply chain operations as well as it offers the ability to trace the entire lifecycle just by scanning a unique QR Code. By having all the vital information, it created a higher customer trust and confidence with DAAS agarwood products from the B2B and B2C segments.

According to Xtven Teoh – Founder and Managing Director of XTS Technologies – a leader in the robotic and industry automation – we are proud to be part of this collaborative effort in providing our services that will be covering the hardware, software, and program algorithm. We hope to bring our 13 years of experience into the agarwood industry to establish ourselves as a key play in the industry.

Lim Chee Siong – Vice President of Huawei Cloud & AI further commented “we are pleased to work with DAAS and XTS technologies to elevate the agriculture industry by incorporating cutting edge IoT, 5G and big data technologies. We are confident that these technologies will provide the required data and insights to increase productivity and ensure sustainable growth within the Agarwood sector. This in turn we believe will benefit other agriculture industry players and end consumers as well.”

“The Internet of Agarwood” is more than just adopting agriculture 4.0. it is the next step forward in Agarwood plantation; a smarter, more efficient agarwood plantation that makes full use of big data and new technologies to benefit the whole supply chain and agarwood plantation industry in Malaysia.