Sarang village is located in the ward eight area of Sumgilbar Local Level Government (LLG) in Sumkar District of Madang Province.
The community is highly tenet on fishing for livelihood and over the years has ventured into partnership with the National Fisheries Authority (NFA).
This coastal village celebrated the 10th anniversary of its local fisheries business group.
The local fisheries venture called Aimiyarong Business Incorporated is a Coastal Fisheries program that was established with the assistance of the National Fisheries Authority.
Greg Sirar the Acting Director of the Madang Provincial Fisheries Division, acknowledged these villagers for successfully implementing the NFA IFAD fisheries program. The Office of the Governor’s special projects officer, Francis Tavatuna encouraged villagers to venture into such programs and SMEs so that it would enable the government to support and assist with funding.
In line with that, he also wants to see that financial literacy training and certification are adapted into the programs and SME start-ups so that it is easier to get funding support after evaluating their proposals.
Ward 8-member Joel Kulang thanked Madang Governor, Ramsey Pariwa for his support towards the group as well as the fisheries sector in the province. The village apart from the fisheries program has also embarked on livestock farming of chicken layered egg production and duck farming.
Mr Tavatuna also announced that in the coming weeks, government officials will be in Madang to release funding for the new state-of-the-art abattoir, which will enable livestock farmers to sell their produce directly, maximizing income to farmers.
Further to that, the provincial government is also looking at developing the Dylup Plantation for the downstream processing of coconuts, which is also currently in the pipeline.
Greg Sirar has empowered the group with a K45,000 commitment for their Small Fisheries Operation Training and a 40-horse-powered banana boat that would come under the Fisheries Sector support.
Sirar also stated that Sarang village would be used as a model for coastal fisheries in Madang Province going forward.
During the celebrations, it was also declared that NFA has granted Sarang village to enter into another phase of their coastal fisheries development program.
The provincial government has allocated K2.4m for District Fisheries Support for all the six districts in Madang.
The event was attended by representatives of various stakeholders including Fisheries, Commerce Division of the Madang Administration and World Vision.
Representatives from neighbouring villages of Karkum, Tokain, Megiar and Dylup also attended the event.