Akure — Ondo State is set to take its pride of place in the production of oil palm in the nation by partnering with a Malaysian Firm, Agro Bayu Consultancy in its bid to revolutionize its flagging oil palm plantations in the State.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko who disclosed that already a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would soon be signed during the presentation of a project package presented by Agro Bayu Consultancy, Malaysia and the Ondo State Wealth Creation Agency in Akure at the weekend said oil palm revolution would be a focal point of the vision of his administration.

The Malaysia firm was represented by two leading Palm experts, Mr. Zolkfli Mahmud and Mr. Esnan Ab-Ghani.

The governor who noted that the Malaysia government took palm seedlings from Nigeria in the early 1960s regretted that the successive administrations had abandoned Palm tree production due to the discovery of crude oil in the country.

In his remark, the Leader of team, Mr. Zolkfli Mahmud who has presented over five hundred papers on palm tree productions around the world, noted that palm seedlings from NIFOR would be used in the first phase of establishment of Oil Palm Nursery for high seedlings to supply to all plantations in the state.

The proposed planting sites for first year of palm revolution are Ore axis, Akunu axis, Supare axis and Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko which would serve as research and training institute for the project

The second year of the palm revolution is processing plant which will end in 2012.