Agriculture

He said in the last term of Parliament, though there were two governments, agriculture was not a priority and it has been the same with successive governments past and present.

Aganisafa said there have been lost opportunities and misplacement of resources due to bureaucratic red tape in the past, yet the agriculture sector continues to sustain the bulk of our 10 million plus people, who live off the land. 

Team Esa’ala Culture Coordinator Kenphyl Duigu said Sport, Religion and Culture was captured in the program in the current event but he suggested that for future events, agriculture and choir must be added.

“Islanders are known as choir singers and for Esa’ala, we sing choir better in Milne Bay Province.

“Through this National Youth Development Authority program, we have seen that we achieved most of our goals in the youth, law and order, agriculture.

On Monday 14 February 2022, the Country Consultative Meeting for the FAO 36th Session of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference (APRC) was held in Port Moresby. The half-day high-level consultation meeting with relevant Government authorities is a lead up to the main event, which is the FAO 36th Session of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference.

The FAO conference is scheduled to be held from 8th - 11th of March 2022, in Dhaka, Bangladesh

He said this when opening the landmark icon of the people of West New Britain, last week, which was funded by money from the province’s lucrative oil palm industry.

The Department of Justice and Attorney-General and all its agencies will be taking up space in all 12 floors.

Prime Minister Marape said the West New Britain story should be an inspiration for every individual and provincial government in the country, and was in line with Pangu Pati’s vision of economic independence for PNG.

The mills will assist them to efficiently process their coffee.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon officiated at this launching at the Nondugl

Council Chamber grounds recently.

The groups include Waka, Numkussy, Opka, Kumbal Kopong and Konum coffee cooperatives.

Minister Simon told the gathering at Nondugl that they did not need an educated person to go and tell them to attend to their coffee gardens, but that the knowledge and skills on how to till the land was already with them.

This approach is being led by Governor Robert Agarobe to mobilise their land from a subsistence lifestyle into a more commercialised one.

“At the moment, we are all subsistence farmers, we grow a bit of this and a bit of that. To secure the market and push production, it becomes a problem, so by going down that path by one crop electorate and one farmer concept, we can then commercialise,” said Governor Agarobe.

One of these, inaugurated by the EU in late August 2019, is a PGK340m ($99.6m) pilot program designed to benefit smallholder farms.

This deal comes after the launch of the EU’s Enterprise Development Fund earlier in 2019, which will provide funding for small-scale vanilla and cocoa farmers in the provinces of East Sepik and Sandaun in the north-west.

“And agriculture will generate income for the family and the nation,” said Prime Minister James Marape during the October 4th South Pacific Institute of Sustainable Agriculture Conference, which was held at the University of Technology in Lae.

“The greatest individual, country and global need is not oil, gas, gold, iron, timber, etc but food and oxygen. We have both here in abundance in PNG.

The announcement is expected this week.

Prime Minister Marape says one vice minister will be responsible for coffee and intervention in coffee, another will be responsible for copra, cocoa and palm oil while a third will oversee the livestock sector.

“I think we’ve given so much lip service to the agriculture space; that is the lowest hanging fruit in as far as giving back to our country and empowering our citizens,” said the PM.

“At the recent PNG Mining and Petroleum Investment conference in Sydney, there were claims that mining was the backbone of the PNG economy. However, I must disagree with the way we present our economy to the outside world, including international investors.

“For there is no doubt that the real economic backbone of our country is our agriculture sector,” stressed Ling-Stuckey.