The agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea contributes more than K2 billion to the nation’s revenue but has not received the Government support since Independence.
Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll reveal this to participants of the ‘2016 Agriculture Leaders’ Summit’ this morning in Port Moresby.
“Agriculture contributes 27 percent of GDP which in Kina currency is just over K2.5 billion towards the budget of PNG.
“But the level of annual investment put back directly into the agriculture sector in real terms is less than K150 million annually.
The sector supports 6.1 million Papua New Guineans which is 85 percent of the country’s population and the Minister did not mince his words when saying agriculture is the nation’s lifeline.
“If this has been the level of investment, then of course, we have been unintentionally slaughtering this important sector.
“Ultimately, we are clogging the economy, cutting off the lifeline of our people, denying our people prosperity and economic advancement,” Tomscoll said.