Bid to boost agriculture

"We don't need fertilisers. We grow some of the best fruit and vegetables here, similar to those imported from Australia, which are sold in Port Moresby," said Kaiku Ingiri, a farmer in Karamui-Nomane, a remote district of Chimbu Province in Papua New Guinea. "Our problem is that we cannot bring our produce to the markets because of lack of roads and proper transport.

"We hear of the government having surplus money, but we do not see anything good happening in the districts," Ingiri added.

Some 90 percent of the population of 6.5 million are rural farmers like Ingiri. Papua New Guinea has some of the oldest agricultural history in the world dating back 10,000 years.

While the government has poured millions of dollars into assisting sectors such as mining and petroleum, which produce substantial revenue, investment in agriculture has declined, says Brown Bai, chairman of the Rural Industries Council, which lobbies government for support for private sector agriculture.

Photo: IRIN

In the past year Papua New Guinea has developed a national strategy to increase agricultural production and economic development. Sweet potatoes are a major crop, mostly for domestic consumption

Focus on industry and mining

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare continues to see national growth in mining and petroleum as a priority. "When we first came to office [in 2002], I personally implemented new policies to attract investment once again into our mining and oil sectors.

"The new policy, which took effect in early 2003, brought a sense of assurance to foreign investors and greatly increased the attractiveness of involvement in Papua New Guinea," said Somare.

The production of many cash crops such as coffee and copra, which were once vibrant cash earners, has declined as people switch to more lucrative industries. The government, realising that agricultural growth is vital to meet the consumption needs of a growing population, last year introduced a National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) for 2007 to 2016.

The NADP's objective is to ensure farmers receive the appropriate financial assistance and inputs to produce and gain easier access to markets.

Productivity decline

In the World Development Report 2008, Agriculture for Development, the World Bank stated that only 30 percent of Papua New Guinea's 46.2 million hectares of land was considered suitable for agriculture. In addition, a combination of factors was causing a deterioration in PNG's agricultural productivity, including a decline in soil fertility and overall farm size, falling commodity prices and migration from rural areas.

"We need to guard against these as well as issues of recurrent food crises due to drought, frost and other natural disasters," Anton Benjamin, the secretary for the National Department of Agriculture and Livestock, told IRIN.

"We need to also realise the full potential of women and unemployed youths in the agricultural revolution," said Benjamin, adding that agriculture was a vital development tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goal to reduce poverty and hunger by half by 2015.

"We agree with the WDR that agriculture offers pathways out of poverty in agriculture-based countries such as PNG and many other developing countries and agriculture will continue to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction."

Growth trigger

"PNG is an agriculturally based country and the formulation and implementation of the recently approved NADP is expected to provide the basis for rapid economic growth," Benjamin said, "and that will move the country and the population forward to the transformational stage in the mid-term and towards greater industrialisation in the long term."

Photo: IRIN

Taro is a staple crop in PNG. There are suggestions that taro be exported for sale abroad, particularly in New Zealand

The World Bank's country representative in PNG, Benson Ateng, told IRIN: "The country's agriculture sector was allowed to suffer because of many years of policy neglect and the World Bank, as a partner in development, will assist the government to identify which policy areas need additional focus so that special attention can be paid to these areas."

Ateng also said there had been insufficient investment in agriculture and where there had been investment, it had not been supported by infrastructure such as roads.

The World Bank will implement a four-year assistance strategy from 2008 to 2011, according to Ateng, to help improve livelihoods in agriculture and service delivery and provide financial support for the sector.

Benjamin added that the NADP was expected to lift the majority of the population out of poverty and food insecurity by 2016, through improved access to markets, enhanced smallholder competitiveness, improved livelihoods and increased employment in agriculture and rural occupations.

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