Ogun partners Malaysia on produce packaging for export

Prompted by the mission to achieve its agricultural development plan targeted at creating value for the produce in the agriculture value-chain, Ogun State government is collaborating with Malaysian Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry in crops processing, packaging and distribution of agricultural produce to many countries in the world.

According to presentations delivered in Abeokuta during the state government meeting with the team of Malaysian officials led by Hashim Abdullah, Malaysian secretary-general, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, the Malaysian government and Marditech Corporation, a Malaysian-based agro-allied industry are partnering Ogun State on improved agricultural production for local consumption and exports.

Anas Ahmed Nadarudin, CEO, Marditech Corporation, a private Malaysian agricultural firm that is expected to drive the collaboration, disclosed that Malaysia was collaborating with Ogun in rice and oil palm production and processing; cassava production and processing; establishment of green-houses for tomato and pepper production, as well as establishment of model farm estates, among others.

Nadarudin, who also revealed Malaysian-based agro-allied industry’s partnership with Ondo and Kano states in rice production and food processing, declared its readiness to transform Ogun economy through advanced technology-based agricultural practice, expressing optimism that the state would benefit a lot economically from the collaboration.

Responding, Governor Ibikunle Amosun said his recent trip to the Asian country gave him the conviction that the Malaysian Agricultural Ministry had the competence, capacity and expertise to assist the state in all areas of agricultural development, pledging its government’s readiness to map out strategies that would facilitate quick actualisation of the collaboration.

“In this collaboration, we are starting with 10 of our local governments; and of course, all the local governments in the state have their own uniqueness in terms of crops production and we are looking into where we have comparative advantage like rice, cassava, palm, cotton plantations, and many others.

“I like the idea of a second generation farming which you mentioned as this will encourage our youths to go into farming and enable us to capture the young ones for agricultural activities,” the governor said.

Commenting on huge market for finished products, the governor assured the visitors that he would get all the stakeholders in the agricultural sector to be part of the collaboration in order to tap from the Malaysian experience, saying: “I am looking at a highly successful collaboration with your government that will translate to an improved agricultural development in our state.”

By: RAZAQ AYINLA