IRGA Sdn Bhd today established itself as a 4IR ready Agritech Company in Malaysia that focuses on machines and tools that harmoniously integrate smart physical software with traditional agrobiological knowledge.
IRGA aims to provide Malaysian and the global estate owners, farmers and agriculture landowners with an integrated precision farming solution to streamline the decision-making process during the different stages of crop production.
IRGA champions the collective experience of some of the well-known minds in plantation agriculture, agricultural technology and digital engineering, product specialists and scientists. The Agritech enabler foresee opportunities in integrating software and accelerating greater digitalisation of the agricultural industry.
“The US$10 Trillion global agricultural industry has always played a vital role in the development of human civilisation. However, with the advent of climate change and worsening food insecurity, it is becoming increasingly vital for the sector to implement new, environmentally friendly strategies to address these issues. This is where Agritech and 4IR comes in,” said Girish Ramachandran, Co-Founder of IRGA.AG.
IRGA last week acquired a leading local farming equipment manufacturer, Kingoya Enterprise Sdn. Bhd, with the objective of changing the landscape of the agricultural industry. KINGOYA is currently one of the leading global oil palms harvesting equipment manufacturers. KINGOYA has in-house design and manufacturing capabilities for more than 100 agricultural products, producing highest quality of durable tools for field activities and currently exports to more than 20 countries. KINGOYA could potentially tap on the growing global agriculture equipment market, which is projected to grow at 8.9% annually to reach US$ 245 Billion by 2025.
“KINGOYA’s 20-year-old brand will remain, but as an IRGA company. It will retain its present management and supply chain players and at the same time have the opportunity to expand its manufacturing and export operations to greater heights with more sophisticated products. IRGA is about product development and the agri-food industry is ready for disruption with digitalisation and BioDigital,” said Girish.
IRGA is also excited to welcome the leadership of KINGOYA to its team. Yama Yeo Keng Loong will take on the role as Managing Director of Manufacturing, and Gopi Nath Nair as Managing Director of Field Services.
“Being a director in KINGOYA for more than 10 years, there is huge potential to bridge hardware manufacturing with software solutions and take KINGOYA’s global growth to a new level. I think we have a solid team in KINGOYA led by Yama and his key personnel, and I am looking forward to greater collaboration between the IRGA teams involved in software and product development and the hardware specialists in KINGOYA.” said Girish.
KINGOYA’s leadership team of Yama and Gopi, with a combined experience exceeding five decades, have been involved in the manufacturing of farm equipment. Yama has been the Managing Director of KINGOYA for 23 years and he is the key innovator of KINGOYA’s products. Gopi is the other Co-Founder of KINGOYA with over 30 years’ experience in managing oil palm plantations in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
“We are excited about this new development and we look forward to substantial synergies in our operations to grow the business. KINGOYA will continue to maintain its lead position as innovator of the equipment and harvesting tools for the oil palm industry. Additionally, our customers will also greatly benefit from this corporate move – as KINGOYA through IRGA will be actively exploring automation and mechanisation in the agricultural space. We are also very eager to embark on KINGOYA’s next level of transformation in automation, robotics and smart factory modules with the IRGA team.” said Yama Yeo.
“We are confident that the acquisition of KINGOYA will now complete our 4IR strategy to converge digital software, with innovative hardware and biological analytics. Everyone is talking about 4IR; we are doing it for the manufacturing of our new products which are in the pipeline. IRGA is a 100% Malaysian story, providing solutions to food security issues and addressing ESG risks”, added Girish.
