Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll has assured the people of Kairuku Hiri District that the multi-million kina rice project will continue.
The project, at the moment, has gone back to a government rice committee to negotiate issues of allocations of the import quota.
The meeting was held last week and Tomscoll is yet to be briefed on the outcome.
Tomscoll said there are many issues that they’ll have to consider before the project can commence operations.
The project is subject to all social mapping, land marking and identifications of landowners.
“We cannot just let companies walk in without social mapping, identifying who the landowners are and sorting out the beneficiaries of the project.
“This is being undertaken and once this is complete and the State and landowners are satisfied then the actual project will commence.
“The project is subject to these requirements of law that need to be fulfilled,” Tomscoll said.
The Minister said this in response to questions raised in Parliament yesterday by member for Kairuku Hiri, Peter Isoaimo, on the current status of the project.
Isoaimo asked when the project will commence operations for the benefit of the people and PNG to reduce the import of rice.
He said the leaders of Central Province are being blamed on social media for not doing anything about the project, which would benefit the country.
Tomscoll added that this large scale commercial farming of rice is undertaken in PNG for the first time.
The project aims to get PNG from a rice import dependent country to a rice export dependent country.
At the moment, PNG is importing about 350,000 tons of rice per year, which equates to something close to K600 to K700 million.