Afternoon Highlight (31/01/13/19/717) Johor okays 3,642.17ha for farming project

Johor okays 3,642.17ha for farming project

NUSAJAYA: Johor has approved 3,642.17ha in the Mersing district as an integrated farming project to boost food production in the state.

The state agriculture and agro-based industries chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Kaprawi said Johor Corp (JCorp) had been tasked to undertake the project in Endau starting this year.

Abd Aziz said 70% of the entire land area must be dedicated to the contract farming activities to be given to local smallholders who have no vested interest in JCorp or its related parties.

“JCorp is managing the entire project where it will buy the products from the smallholders and sell and distribute them to consumers,'' he said.

He said this in the weekly press briefings on the latest development and progress on the issues related to Johor's agriculture and agro-based sector.

Each of the smallholders would be allocated about 20.23ha of land from the 3.642.17ha and they would lease land from JCorp, Abd Aziz said, adding that it was up to them to employ staff to toil the land.

He said the majority of the land area would be planted with the MD2 pineapple varieties for export markets, corn and poultry and cattle breeding activities.

“This will be the country's first large-scale commercial farming, with the main aim of encouraging more locals especially young people to go into agriculture and agro-based business,'' said Abd Aziz.

He said under the programme, smallholders would buy their pineapple and corn seedling as well as chicks and cattle from JCorp.

According to him, JCorp will buy the chickens from the farmers to be distributed to its Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut outlets in Malaysia and Singapore and also process the chicken meat into value-added products.

“It is a win-win situation for JCorp and the smallholders where it will ensure a constant supply of raw materials for its food-based companies and the latter will have no worries to market their produce,'' he said.

Separately, he said the agriculture and agro-based activities remained an important sector to Johor, contributing RM12bil in earnings, up from RM8.9bil and RM10.7bil in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Source : The Star

Date : 30 Jan 2013

Afternoon Highlight (31/01/13/19/717)