KS Pharm (CEO Kang Seongmin) announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the national university of Malaysia, for cooperation in smart farm construction and cultivation technology.
This agreement aims to jointly develop a smart farm model suitable for the local environment in Malaysia, based on KS Pharm’s expertise in smart farm design and construction, as well as its know-how in crop cultivation and operation. The company also seeks to explore expansion into the broader Southeast Asian region in the future.
Last November, KS Pharm collaborated with domestic companies to establish a Korean-style smart farm environmental control system, as well as nutrient solution and irrigation systems, at UPM’s local farm. Building on these efforts, a local demonstration project was conducted. By applying environmental management methods and crop operation processes tailored to Malaysia’s climate and cultivation conditions, the company went beyond simply introducing equipment and verified cultivation standards and operation manuals that can be implemented locally.
This MOU was signed based on the results of these local demonstration projects, with UPM’s professors and officials visiting Korea this month. During their visit, UPM representatives toured KS Pharm’s smart farm greenhouse in Boryeong and visited Yeonam College, an institution specializing in smart agriculture education and research, where they directly observed the operational structure and education-linked model of Korean smart farms.
UPM is a leading national research-oriented comprehensive university in Malaysia, possessing extensive agricultural land for practice and research, as well as large-scale experimental farms. On campus, it conducts simultaneous demonstration cultivation and research on a variety of crops, including tropical fruits, vegetables, grains, and livestock products. UPM is recognized for having the top research infrastructure in Malaysia in the fields of climate change adaptation agriculture, sustainable cultivation technology, and smart agriculture. Leveraging these strengths, UPM is highly competitive as a collaborative partner capable of both practical application and academic validation. Professor Zahara stated, “Through this partnership, we plan to establish a demonstration-based smart farm cooperation model that combines KS Pharm’s field-oriented cultivation technology with academic research capabilities.”
Kang Seongmin, CEO of KS Pharm, commented, “This agreement is significant in that it positions Malaysia not as a short-term project site, but as a strategic hub for the expansion of smart farms throughout Southeast Asia. Based on the locally validated know-how in smart farm construction and cultivation, we plan to gradually expand into neighboring countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, and are also considering the phased introduction of stevia, which is of great interest to UPM.”
Meanwhile, KS Pharm is an agricultural specialist company integrating smart farm cultivation, processing, and distribution. Drawing on its field-oriented smart farm construction experience, the company is developing the ‘AI Farming Friend’ application to support farmers’ cultivation management and on-site operations. In the future, KS Pharm plans to further enhance its services by leveraging cultivation data accumulated from overseas demonstration sites, making them applicable to the global agricultural environment.
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