MEDAC will help expand corn industry to meet supply of animal feed

JOHOR BAHRU: The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) will assist in expanding the grain corn industry to meet the supply of animal feed for livestock.

Its Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said agricultural cooperatives under the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM) and the Agriculture Department, for example, could work together to increase maize planting projects.

"Agricultural cooperatives under SKM will of course work with the Department of Agriculture and maybe, we can share capital together.

"Perhaps the Agriculture Department can provide seeds and equipment, while the SKM cooperatives provide capital to clear the land," he said at a press conference after visiting the Masjid Taman Impian Emas Cooperative here today.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee recently said that his ministry would expand the country's maize industry to meet the supply of corn for livestock feed.

He said the supply of maize for animal feed, especially for poultry in the country was currently imported entirely from foreign countries whereby if their producers increased the price, it (the increase in the price of corn as chicken feed) would raise the price of local chicken and eggs.

Meanwhile, Noh said MEDAC targeted 300 new mosque cooperatives to be established this year.

He said in total, there were 6,450 mosques nationwide, of which only 454 had mosque cooperatives.

"So our main performance indicator is to add 300 more mosque cooperatives, so at least 10 per cent will have mosque cooperatives. We hope these cooperatives will not only get involved in the agricultural sector but also in retail, catering, tourism and others," he said.

-- BERNAMA