Father and son burnt alive on suspecion of sorcery

By ANDREW ALPHONSE

A father and son suspected of sorcery were burnt to death at Ban village, just a few kilometres outside Mt Hagen city yesterday afternoon, The National reports.

Police said the suspects were believed to be men from the local community.

Mt Hagen duty policemen visited the crime scene after being alerted via mobile phone by other locals and confirmed seeing the corpses of the two victims.

The policemen tried to bring in reinforcements from other police units in the city in an effort to take the corpses to hospital for autopsy, but were denied access to the crime scene by heavily armed locals.

A policeman, who managed to visit the scene earlier, said the incident happened about 4pm when the villagers from the local tribe (named) suspected the father and the son of being behind the alleged sorcery death of a prominent person in the community earlier.

The policeman said the locals believed that the only way to remove the “evil spirit” in the two was to burn them alive.

He said the old man was shot and then thrown into the fire.

The policeman said the son, who was in the house with his wife, was also dragged out after the house was set on fire and burnt alive.

He said the son’s wife, who is believed to be from Nebilyer and had no part in the alleged sorcery, managed to escape.

Locals identified the father as 60-year-old Plak Mel Doa, while the son was identified as Anis Dua, both of Ban village and belonging to the Moge Kimininga tribe in Mt Hagen.

Police said they would return today with the police criminal investigations (CID) detectives and an ambulance to collect the corpses for autopsy.

Local police authorities could not be reached for comments last night.

Sorcery-related killings had become common in the Highlands and calls have been made for tougher penalties.

New Zealand envoy robbed on golf course

New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea Niels Holm was robbed while playing golf with friends in Port Moresby last Friday, Waitangi Day, The National reports.  

“Eight of these guys suddenly ran out from behind the utilities shed – a couple with handguns and one with a home-made shotgun, and the rest with machetes,” Mr Holm told New Zealand’s TV One News.

“We were all fairly expertly frisked, with golf bags rummaged and one even came back to get my sunglasses, and off they all went,” he said.

Mr Holm is the second New Zealand High Commissioner to PNG to be held up on the golf course in recent years.

The National attempted to get comments from senior police officers in Port Moresby but was unsuccessful.

Morobe Show on again !

The 2009 Morobe Show will be held at the Lae Showground on Saturday, October 31st and Sunday, November 1^st, 2009.

The Morobe Agricultural Show is a major tourist attraction and showcases the agricultural, industrial, commercial and cultural aspects of Lae and the Morobe Province.

It plays a major role in the dissemination of information on cultivation, crops, diseases and breeding, as well as being the largest entertainment event in the province.

This is the 49th show since 1959 and, like its predecessors, will pull in people from all over Papua New Guinea as well as tourists from overseas.

If you’re from overseas, mark these dates on your calendar and make your bookings early!

 

Support 'Papua New Guinea' Made products

Few countries are as blessed with natural resources as Papua New Guinea.

Its largely mountainous terrain is swathed in dense tropical rainforest, the soil is rich for cultivation and the South Pacific waters off its coasts teem with fish.

Beneath the ground lies a wealth of minerals, including gold, silver and copper, and there is oil and natural gas awaiting exploitation.

It is a beautiful country too, one of the most biodiverse in the world with a dazzling variety of flora and fauna, insect and birdlife.

Yet while PNG is resource rich, it is cash poor, and 33 years after achieving independence from Australia – not very long in the life of a country – it still faces significant challenges of nationhood.

Poor transport infrastructure, unreliable electricity supply, a low standard of education, a chronic health disorder,  law and order problems and a shortage of new investment are among the factors that have held back economic development.

New incentives must be aimed at triggering investment and growth including producing and marketing more ‘PNG Made’ products.

There are many opportunities, but we need to create an awareness of the potential we have.

We must aggressively promote ‘PNG Made’ products in such ways as holding international trade fairs and introduce ourselves first in the regional markets and then the bigger international markets.

This is in light of the once-popular ‘PNG Made Trade Fair’ becoming history!

And so, PNG continues to import almost all processed food, clothing and footwear and most of the inputs to industry and commerce are also imported.

However, there are potential investment opportunities in downstream activities, which we are not tapping into.

The government of PNG must put into place strong policies which will lead to the development of a strong domestic production base to replace reliance on the non-renewable resource industries such as mining and petroleum.

The government needs to generate greater domestic production of most basic consumer and industry needs.

As such, incentives and concessions are granted to businesses with a policy of import substitution.

A concerted effort is being applied to address problems the industry has experienced. Infrastructure improvements and lowering of input tariffs would greatly reduce production costs.

The manufacturing industry has been urged to adopt cost-reducing, efficient techniques on the factory floor and within management to prepare itself for foreign competition when protective tariffs are phased out.

The Manufacturers Council of PNG (a private sector organisation) promotes the manufacturing and downstream processing in PNG.

The manufacturing sector in PNG is small.

In the 15 years between 1977 and 1992, the manufacturing sector's contribution to GDP varied between 15-18 percent.

Food processing, beverage production, and tobacco processing are the main products manufactured in the country.

The PNG government uses tariffs and subsidies, as well as direct industry support, to keep this sector afloat.

While the industry has become dependent upon such measures, the government sees the manufacturing sector as providing employment for the increasing number of urban migrants.

Most manufacturing is for domestic consumption only, and does not generate any export earnings.

To ensure industrial development accelerates efficiently, the PNG government is revising its trade and tariff policies.

Substantial changes in those policies is alleviating the problems the industry has experienced, such as the high cost of inputs.

Coupled with the concerted effort being applied to improving the country's physical infrastructure, education and vocational training opportunities and health services, there are potential investment opportunities in downstream activities.

These infrastructure improvements and lowering of input tariffs greatly reduces production costs.

Industry has been urged to adopt cost-reducing, efficient techniques on the factory floor and within management, to prepare itself for foreign competition when protective tariffs are greatly phased down.

The sector has a close working relationship with the government.

A strong representative body exists in the Manufacturers Council of PNG.

 There is regular consultation between its members and key senior government departments and statutory bodies.

The chamber also deals with private sector organisations in negotiating better prices for the supply of goods and services.

A manufacturing database is being developed for both the government and manufacturers to facilitate collection, collation and cross-referencing of essential statistical data on manufacturing in PNG.

It will be used to highlight to the Government and industry, any systems defects, deficiencies, anomalies or requirements which are in need of attention.

Overall, it will help to improve industry through the provision of improved and timely information.

The database is also expected to boost domestic and export marketing and facilitate identification of alternative sources of manufacturing inputs.

The level of skills in the manufacturing sector is also being given special attention. Organisation and planning for a major, long-term vocational training programme is near completion.

 It is intended, initially to concentrate on the manufacturing and processing industries, but provisions will be made to extend its usefulness to other sectors.

It is vital to the sector to improve the quality of its products, increase its export opportunities and improve the nation's standard of living through employment opportunities, product quality and pricing.

In co-operation with the domestic manufacturing sector, the government of PNG must put into place strong policies which will lead to the development of a strong domestic production base to replace reliance on the non-renewable resources industries such as mining and petroleum.

We must all support ‘PNG Made’ Products.

 

EU gives shark protection teeth

Captions: 1. Top cuts on the quay. 2. About 50 million sharks a year are caught accidentally

 

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News website  

 The European Commission has unveiled measures aimed at protecting sharks, many of which are in sharp decline.

The proposals would close loopholes in current shark finning regulations, cut catches of endangered species and set quotas according to scientific advice.

About half of ocean-going shark species are threatened with extinction.

Conservation groups have given a mixed reaction to the commission's proposals, which now go to the European Parliament and Council of Ministers for approval.

"The plan is a great step forwards for the conservation of sharks in European waters and beyond," said Sonja Fordham, policy director of the Shark Alliance, a coalition of organisations representing conservation, science and recreational interests.  

"The commitments to science-based fishing limits, endangered species protection, and a stronger finning ban are essential to securing a brighter future for some of Europe's most vulnerable and neglected animals."

The regulations will also apply to sharks' close relatives, skates and rays.

But the Madrid-based conservation group Oceana said the proposals did not go far enough.

"We have got a vague document which does not contain measures to achieve the goal of conservation and sustainable management of sharks," said the group's director of investigations, Ricardo Aguilar.

"Key omissions include a commitment to the precautionary approach, and integration with existing EU and global environmental measures that aim to protect threatened sharks and their habitats."

Among other things, Oceana had been lobbying for a much tighter timescale on the introduction of these controls, some of which may not come into force for four years - and then only if the European Parliament and Council of Ministers agree.

Body of evidence

The most concrete of the commission's proposals concerns the regulations on finning.  

European vessels are not allowed to remove fins from sharks and dump the carcasses in the water - a practice that used to be rife as fishermen sought to supply fins to the lucrative East Asian market with the minimum bother.

Instead they have to land detached fins and carcasses in a ratio of weights that is supposed to ensure that everything makes it to port - one carcass for every fin.

Activists have long held that the use of relative weights is a loophole that fishermen can and do manipulate, allowing them to discard up to half of the carcasses.

They have urged the EU to mandate that all sharks must be landed with fins still attached, as the US does for many of its shark fisheries.

The commission has now accepted this argument, and is proposing that "fins attached" becomes standard across EU fleets, although there might be exceptions.

Other elements of the proposals include:

• for commercially targeted species, setting catch limits in line with scientific advice
• banning fishing in areas important for reproduction and rearing, and on threatened species
• placing observers on boats reporting large amounts of bycatch ("accidental" catches)
• collecting more data through the supply chain
• applying these restrictions to all EU-registered vessels, wherever they operate

Bycatch is a particularly thorny issue. Sharks regularly become impaled on hooks dragged by boats targeting high-value species such as tuna, or entangled in nets.

The commission envisages developing types of fishing gear that allow fishermen to target more specifically what they want to catch.

In recent years, it has become clear that sharks, rays and skates are inherently vulnerable to overfishing because they reproduce slowly and live long lives - a factor that EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg recognised as he unveiled the new proposals.

"Sharks are very vulnerable to overexploitation, and the consequences of depleting their numbers may have very serious consequences not only for sharks but also for marine ecosystems and for fishermen themselves," he said.

"That is why we have set out a plan of action today which will both establish a more precautionary approach to managing fisheries where sharks are caught, and support the substantial research still needed to understand fully the role sharks play in the life of our oceans and the impact which fishing may have on them."

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk  

 

 

Ramu Agri Industries proudly growing with Papua New Guinea

Since its acquisition in September 2008, Ramu Agri Industries, now a part of the NBPOL Group has almost completed its restructuring and systems to suit the existing structures and practices of NBPOL. Our brand of Ramu Sugar is etched in the history of Papua New Guinea.

The company was first incorporated in 1978, and achieved our first harvest of Ramu Sugar in 1982.

 Ramu Sugar has become a part of every household in Papua New Guinea, and when people hear the name Ramu, they automatically think of sugar.

Our brand delivers quality, affordability, and value.

Sugar consumption in Papua New Guinea is on the increase.

Figures show that in 2006, average consumption of sugar per capita was 5.4kg per annum.

In 2007, we saw this figure increase to 6.2kg, and expected finish at year-end for 2008 is 6.4kg.

 Our expectation for 2009 is for consumption per capita to be 6.8kg and further on from this, we see PNG consumption achieving 8kg per person a year.

PNG rates as one of the lowest consumers of sugar when compared to world figures.

Highest consumption per capita is Swaziland, averaging 95kgs per person per annum, followed by Switzerland at 70kgs per person per annum.

The company is growing with focus on its core businesses of sugar, beef and palm oil.

RAI’s objectives are to develop and operate these projects in accordance with the sustainable development principles of:

Ø      Best practice in agriculture and food processing

Ø      Environmental responsibility

Ø      Social accountability

Ø      Continuous improvement of performance.

New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL), together with Ramu Agri Industries,  embrace the principles of sustainable development with a goal to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from today's actions and we will continue to define sustainable development as encompassing responsible resource stewardship, effective pollution prevention and the capacity to produce PNG Made Products efficiently.

The goal of sustainable development will be achieved by balancing the considerations for people, planet and profit in all management decisions.

 

Papua New Guinea's 'Green Gold'

Contrary to what is often assumed, Papua New Guinea's coffee industry is not based upon large, corporately-owned plantations, but on tens of thousands of small, village coffee gardens.
Typically, they range in size from 20 trees to 500 or 600.
These family-owned coffee gardens produce over 70% of the countries' annual exportable crop; a crop which has averaged one million bags, or 60,000 tonnes per year in recent times.
The balance of the crop is grown on commercial plantations which range from 20 to 100 hectares and more in size.
Of all the plantations registered with the Coffee Industry Corporation, all but half a dozen of the largest are owned by local, village-based business groups or individuals.
It is estimated that nearly 3 million people, or almost half of the nation's population, derive a benefit from the coffee industry.
The CIC, as the coffee industry facilitator, last year launched a strategic plan for the coffee industry that should move forward the industry with re-invigorated vision and mission to new heights.
“The plan supports the National Government’s Medium Term Development Plan and the National Agriculture Development Plan,” explained CIC chairman Pugama Kopi.
“The PNG Coffee Industry Strategic Plan 2008-2018 was developed through an exhaustive exercise in which sector-wide approach was taken to ensure that stakeholders contributed in the planning process.
“PNG is naturally blessed with a varying degree of culture.
“Fittingly, the new vision for the coffee industry is: ‘Enjoy PNG Coffee Rich in Aroma and Culture’.   
“Coffee is an introduced cash crop but it has now become part of PNG culture with almost all social or economic activities in coffee-growing provinces associated with coffee.
“In addition, aroma of PNG coffee is rich that coffee connoisseurs world-wide prefer to get a taste of it.
“Coffee’s importance to the local industry cannot be over-emphasised as it generates K350 million annually and 60-70% of the income goes to 397,772 households that farm coffee as a cash crop.
“Unlike other cash crops that are farmed by multi-national companies where the earnings are retained by them, the PNG coffee industry, which is largely deregulated, enables cash income to go directly to farmers.”
The thrust of the plan promotes and supports the continuing development of a sustainable coffee industry in PNG which will:
a) Maximise financial returns to all coffee producers; and
b) Contribute to the government’s economic and social policy goals.
“The Coffee Industry Corporation envisions a strategic move for the coffee industry; therefore, it has taken the onus as the industry leader to realign its modus operandi,” Mr Kopi continued.
“The CIC, in the past, has made changes with minimum fuss and was done where it was needed.
“It has taken painful exercises in the past to streamline its operations to be cost-effective and efficient in providing services to its stakeholders.
“The CIC, with industry participation, has developed a ‘homegrown’ strategic plan.
“Once again, this process will allow for the stakeholders, including the CIC, to refocus in their endeavors to enhance coffee producers maximising their returns on investments in the industry.”
The strategic framework captures:
•       Increased and consistent production of high quality coffee so that producers obtain premium prices;
•       Increased awareness of PNG coffee locally and internationally; and
•        Enhanced CIC institutional capacity and governance to ensure that there is efficiency and effectiveness in the operation of the organisation to better serve the stakeholders.
These are the main pillars of the plan that should move the industry forward in the next decade.”
Certainly, in the highlands provinces, commerce and development would never have reached today's levels without the annual flow of income from this crop, a flow which begins in April, peaks in July/August and then tapers off quickly, so that the highland towns are comparatively quiet again in the final months of the year.
The coffee crop is 'green gold' which enriches the country annually to the extent of three to four hundred million kina in overseas earnings.
It is PNG's most valuable agricultural export.
And it is an eternally renewable resource.
Back in the early 1950s an active policy of encouraging the establishment of village coffee gardens was initiated, particularly in the highlands where the environment is ideal for the growing of Arabica coffee.
Arabica has a finer flavour and commands a higher price than Robusta, grown in coastal regions, but lacks Robusta's tolerance of the many fungus diseases which prevail in the steamy climate of the coast.
Although small areas of coffee had been established in certain coastal areas before the Second World War, no-one was prepared for the enthusiasm with which the highlands population adopted this new and initially strange crop.
At first it was hard to explain the use to which the ripe, red coffee berries or 'cherries' as they are called, would be put, and many older people, conservative and suspicious of the new plant with its shiny, dark-green leaves, predicted that coffee would bring bad luck and even cause the death of their much-prized pigs!
But very soon large numbers of highlanders were enthusiastically involved in setting up coffee nurseries with seed supplied by government agricultural extension workers.
Everywhere, families and clan groups were clearing land for coffee.
From small beginnings in the early 1950s, by 1960 more than 4000 hectares of Arabica coffee has been established by villagers, mainly in the highlands near Kainantu, Goroka, Mount Hagen and in the Wahgi Valley, but also at Wau, and in the Huon Peninsula in the mountains behind Lae and Finschhafen.
By the early 1970s, the area planted by villagers had increased to an estimated 23,000 hectares producing some 25,000 tonnes of green bean (raw bean) for export each year.
During the 1960s the infrastructural base of today's industry was laid.
Early on, all the coffee produced in the highlands was flown to Madang for overseas shipment. Initially, two coffee mills in which the dried coffee was husked, graded and bagged, were established, one in Goroka and one in Mount Hagen.
First one, and then a second export company was established, both with the participation of the then largely expatriate-owned plantations and mills.
The Coffee Marketing Board (recently re-constituted as the Coffee Industry Corporation) was set up to legislate and develop policy and to administer the industry.
The number of mills set up to buy and process the fast-growing volume of coffee produced by the smallholders soon grew to 10.
By 1964, the Highlands Highway was sufficiently well-developed to make trucking a payable proposition and the use of the aeroplane as the principal means of transporting heavy freight in and out of the highlands was phased out.
At the same time the development of a spreading network of minor roads in the coffee-growing areas allowing easier access to the towns encouraged the industry to grow.
Many coffee growers used their new-found wealth to buy small trucks and began to engage in buying coffee from other farmers, selling it at a profit to the mills.
Later in the 1970s, soon after PNG. became an independent, self-governing nation, the disastrous frost in Brazil put large sections of that country's coffee industry out of business for several seasons.
Papua New Guinea's coffee growers experienced boom conditions for more than three years.
In the highlands many new ventures based on coffee or the income from coffee were funded by a suddenly-adventurous banking industry.
Almost to a man the 100 or so expatriate planters who had arrived in the 1950s, and who with the village growers had pioneered the industry in the highlands, sold out, accepting what were in most cases generous offers made by locally-formed companies and business groups.
At the same time a government-sponsored scheme for the establishment of scores of small 20 hectare coffee plantations, owned corporately by groups of village landowners, came into being.
In the 1980s almost all the middlemen involved in the coffee trade, the buyers who trade either from trucks or roadside depots were local businessmen.
Expatriates still provided management for the export companies and some of the larger mills, but ownership now rested almost entirely in the hands of citizens or citizen corporations.
During the 1980s the world price of coffee fluctuated violently, going from the highs of the late 1970s to new lows, then to a high again in 1986, followed by a steep fall. The plantations, with their heavy burden of debt and high operating costs were in deep trouble.
The smallholders, however, the backbone of the industry, were able to survive because of their independence and in-built resilience.
The typical village-based grower in PNG uses no artificial fertiliser; no chemical sprays, and owns his farm lock, stock and barrel.
His input consists mainly of his own and his family's labour, plus a few simple tools.
Pest and disease control to the grower in the valleys of PNG's highlands means daily watchfulness and the use of fingers and a sharp pair of secateurs, rather than the massive overkill of a chemical regime.
Prunings from his coffee and leaf-fall from the trees which shade it, together with the skin and pulp of his freshly-processed crop provide natural, nutrient-rich mulch. The PNG small grower is very much his own man, very independent in an increasingly complex world.
Aware that nothing sells like quality; in 1994 PNG's Coffee Industry Corporation introduced a compulsory minimum standard for unprocessed coffee into the marketplace. This is in addition to the existing standard for export green bean.
Since 1995, it has been an offence under the provisions of the Coffee Industry Corporation Act for a farmer to offer for sale parchment coffee of the 'Reject' or Class 4 standard.
In 2002, the minimum standard for trade in smallholder parchment coffee was revised from Class 3 to Class 2.
As a result of improved quality control, the discount against the prevailing New York price for 'Other Milds' applying to PNG's 'Y-grade' has been reduced.
The balance of consumption against production in world terms is an up-and-down equation, but at present the near-term outlook for the PNG grower is good.
In particular, the increasing demand for organically-grown coffee presents opportunities for PNG.
With his ability to supply a naturally-grown, naturally-processed product the village-based coffee grower in PNG faces a reasonably assured future.
PNG's Arabica coffee is intrinsically a very good one, known for its good body and acidity, and will always be looked for in the market whilst it enjoys a reputation for reliable quality. PNG's coffee industry is here for the long haul.
This 'green gold' will continue to provide income and stability for generations of small growers in PNG's coffee producing provinces.