Introduction

Universiti Putra Malaysia

Universiti Putra Malaysia was established in 1971 as Universiti Pertanian Malaysia through the merger of the Agriculture College of Malaysia and the Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Malaya. Its academic programs began modestly in 1972 with three founding faculties, namely Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Forestry and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science. An emphasis was given towards undergraduate academic programs and research in agriculture and related fields.

In the early 80's, UPM expanded its programs to to other areas of science and technology, and arts and social sciences. Several new faculties were formed and this transformed UPM from an agriculture university into a university of science and technology.

UPM made its move to become the future university of a world class in 1994. UPM took advantage of the rapid development in information technology and transformed UPM into a borderless campus beyond the national boundary.

In 1997, UPM was renamed Universiti Putra Malaysia. The change was as strategic move to strengthen its position as a leading institute of higher learning for the new millennium. Agriculture is still maintained as an important component of its master development plan.

At present, UPM has 15 faculties in Serdang campus and 1 faculty in Bintulu campus. UPM has been made a research university on 16 November 2006.

Universiti Mission

To be a leading Center of Learning and Research, contributing not only towards human advancement and discovery of knowledge but also to the creation of wealth and nation building.

Faculty of Agriculture

Faculty of Agriculture is one of three founding faculties that made up the formation of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (now Universiti Putra Malaysia) in 1971. Beginning with seven departments under this faculty, most of these departments were later developed to become several other faculties.

At the end of 1998, Faculty of Agriculture has 3 academic departments which are Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Department of Plant Protection and Department of Soil Science.

Beginning from 1st January 1999, the restructuring process at Universiti Putra Malaysia also involved Faculty of Agriculture. The restructuring is based on the concept of uniting or integration of the main elements in the agricultural systems comprising of crop, animal, soil, technology and management. On this basis, the Faculty of Agriculture now have 6 departments - Crop Science, Animal Science, Plant Protection, Land Management, Agribusiness and Information System, and Agriculture Technology.

As a foremost agriculture faculty in this country, Faculty of Agriculture has a major role to find solutions to the current agriculture problems faced by the nations, and to enhance the prospects of development of the agriculture industry in the long term especially in the training programs of human resources for producing trained individuals comprising of graduates who are visionary and competitive in the industrial arena.

Using the country's education system as the base, Faculty of Agriculture will strive to produce trained agriculture expertise characterized by their entrepreneurship and capability to provide consultations at any place, besides contributing to new and high agriculture technology resulting from research and commercialization programs. The Faculty of Agriculture currently offers programs in Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Bachelor of Horticultural Science, and Bachelor of Science (Agribusiness), Bachelor of Agriculture (Aquaculture) and Bachelor of Agriculture (Animal Science). Beside those, programs at postgraduate levels offered are Master in Agriculture Science, Master in Science, Master in Land Resource Management, Master in Plantation Management, Master in Sustainable Land Management and PhD.

Faculty Mission

To become the center of excellence in education, research and technology in tropical agriculture.

To increase capability of UPM to become center of learning and generation of knowledge for agriculture technology.

Faculty Objectives

To become a center of excellence in bio resource and technology through:

• producing quality graduates who are knowledgeable, creative and innovative with entrepreneurship inclination

• enhancing research activities toward using quality technology, product development, process and system in bio industry

• being excellence in consultancy services and bio industry

being an information reference center in bio industry and able to play active role in legislation of National Agricultural Policy

The Quality Objective of Agriculture Faculty

The objective of Agriculture Faculty in undergraduate instructions is to produce agriculture graduates that are relevant, knowledgeable, skillful and competitive.

The Quality Policy of Agriculture Faculty

Agriculture Faculty is determined to be excellent in Tropical Agriculture education through a quality management system which will always be improved to satisfy the needs of our customers, in accordance to MS ISO 9001:2000.

The staff of Agriculture Faculty will always carry out their responsibilities in order to achieve the stated quality objectives of the Faculty, furthermore, ensuring that the objective is periodically reviewed, in accordance to the mission, objective and Quality Policy of the Faculty.