Robert Agarobe

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.

He said people in the province need to begin growing their own food and raise livestock for self-sustenance as well as to potentially supply Port Moresby or other centers.

Agarobe made the call in an update on COVID-19 measures undertaken by the Provincial Government.

Governor Agarobe said the current State of Emergency has shown how a crisis lockdown can affect food supply chains to and from the Province.

He said with the current wet weather, locals need to toil the land in anticipation of a shortage of food stocks both processed and local produce.

Central Governor, Robert Agarobe, said color coded passes will be issued by the Provincial Police Commander with his signature.

Governor Agarobe said under the current lockdown only trade store owners with licenses and permits to operate will be issued passes to travel into Port Moresby and back.

“Passes to be issued by Provincial Police Commanders with colour coding which is orange, and the PPC’s original signature. Without the PPC’s signature, you cannot travel.

Central Governor, Robert Agarobe, said a Rapid Response team was dispatched on March 31^st to a logging site where the ‘Persons of Interest’ were located.

Governor Agarobe said the ‘Person of Interest’ were tracked to Bam,  Abau District.

It is understood they are expatriates working at a logging site in the Cloudy Bay area.

This has forced prices in markets to sky rocket since last week leaving residents with no choice but to bear with it.

Since the nationwide lock down by the Government, road blocks have been staged at the four entry points into Port Moresby forcing some fresh food resellers to bring in produce the hard way.

Women resellers at the Boroko market say they had to pay for private trucks and taxi’s to bring produce from the Bautama entry point into the city.

Susan Kale from Chimbu province said this is why their prices for have risen up.

Central Governor, Robert Agarobe, made this known in a media briefing today straight after the Provincial Executive Council meeting.

When speaking to media at the Central Provincial Government headquarters, Governor Agarobe said he did not come out earlier to make his stance known as he was waiting for the National Government’s response to the COVID-19 situation.

And since a state of emergency has been declared, the provincial executive council has resolved to close off Central Province.

Speaking at a July 10 briefing in the Central Provincial Government headquarters at Konedobu, Port Moresby, Agarobe highlighted that he has submitted a petition to parliament in June last year as drivers for the provincial development goals, in which much of the visions are captured in the petition.

“What I want is an entity or a body to be set up to bring this information to the Parliamentary Select Committee. Let’s put our heads together so we can bring this to the Committee to deliberate on, this is our only opportunity.”

Elected leaders of rural local level government presidents and appointed members of the provincial assembly were in attendance last week in Port Moresby.

Governor for Central, Robert Agarobe, said he was happy with the induction program.

“Since I got in last year, I have had three assembly seatings so far, I was sweating because I had no idea how to conduct my assembly,” Agarobe said.

The Governor made the commitment during the Gala Fundraising dinner for the Digicel Cup 2019 Competition bidding team.

He said land has been identified for the stadium at Bautama.

Agarobe said he wants the franchise to have proper facilities such as the stadium complemented with a clubhouse and supporting amenities.

He pledged his commitment to the team, stating that Central has the players to match it with other provinces in the code.

He said the crowning of Central as PNG Games champions in 2017 was testament.

Agarobe was speaking during the presentation of four laptops to students from Pacific Adventist University (PAU) and University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) at his office in Konedobu, Port Moresby, on Friday, June 22^nd.

He said: “What we are doing is not a free handout, this is part of preparing you and building you up to be special and different.