Organic farming aims to get recognised in Papua New Guinea

Captions: 1. Travellers enjoying fresh coconuts from the Markham Valley. 2. Mothers selling organically-grown taro and pitpit at Rabaul market.

By JOSEPHINE YAGA      

The PNG organic agriculture sector is relatively new, unorganised and underdeveloped to meet certain requirements of international and domestic organic markets.
Unless PNG takes organic farming seriously, the country will continue to miss out on the opportunity to market organically-grown products when its agricultural production systems are primarily organic by default.
Regional organic task force member John Yogiyo highlighted this during a meeting on organic farming strategic plan, which was held at the Alan Quartermain Multi-purpose Hall at Bubia outside Lae recently.
The objective of the meeting was to pave way for the establishment of a PNG organic farming association and the certification process.
The meeting, facilitated by NARI, attracted representatives from the regional organic task force, New Guinea Fruit Company, Fresh Produce Development Agency, Mainland Holdings coffee division, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Agriculture Department of the PNG University of Technology, Aiyura National High School and farmers.
“Although PNG has several industry organisations involved in the development of the organic sector, a formal organic entity with acceptable certification standards and processes needed to be in place”, Mr Yogiyo said.
He added that PNG as the biggest island nation had more resources than other neighbouring pacific island countries - where many individuals, co-operatives, farms and other groups would benefit from a local organic certification establishment.
He said the development of the organic agriculture sector provided PNG with opportunities to address problems in food security, unemployment and environment degradation.  
NARI principal economist Dr Keshav Kshirsagar outlined the advantages of organic farming and provided the overview of global trends in term of organic farming, organic wild collection, certification processes, marketing of organic products and per capita consumption of organic products in various developed countries.
Mainland Holdings Coffee Division Manager Allyosha Reilly commented that most PNG farmers farm organically but the biggest stumbling block is the certification process as it is very long and awkward where it required three years of screening and verification process before the final certificate is awarded.
He said his organisation approached NAASA (an Australian certifying body) about certification but the process was bulky with some of the criteria not applicable to PNG.
Mr Yogiyo said the essence of the meeting was to come up with a PNG organic task force that would look at constrains and opportunities faced by farmers and stakeholders and to find alternate solutions that would prepare this country to be certified as a recognised organic producer.
 He added that PNG was organic by default and urged that it was important the certificated process was organised after the meeting.
NARI director research Dr Sergie Bang provided a copy of a working document by FAO on organic farming initiatives in the Pacific region that had some missing data on organic production for PNG.
“I encourage you participants to provide the needed information if they are available with your respective organisations”, he said.
Commodity boards are also required to provide necessary information.
Dr Bang said although the Secretariat of the Pacific Community had provided K3, 500 to plan the development of organic farming, certification and marketing in PNG, more funding would be needed.
NARI will drive the process forward but will need support from the task force team, the private sector and others.
He recommended an immediate meeting in future to develop an action plan.
The meeting ended with the formation of an organic task force team whose main task will be to develop a strategic plan for the production, certification and marketing of organic produce from PNG.
 

University of Vudal signs agreement with Chinese university

Caption: University of Vudal Vice Chancellor Professor Philip Siaguru (left) and SCAU Vice President Professor Liao Ming seal the agreement with a handshake.

 

By LYTHIA SUITAWA

 

STAFF and students of the University of Vudal will benefit greatly from research and science technology expertise of the South China Agricultural University.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two higher education institutions on last month in China’s third largest city, Guangzhou.

The signing marked a historical moment for Vudal and paves the way for staff and student academic exchanges as well as collaborative research.

UoV Vice Chancellor Professor Philip Siaguru and SCAU Vice President Professor Liao Ming, who signed the agreement, both see the partnership as one of mutual benefit.

Professor Siaguru said as a young university, University of Vudal had much to learn from SCAU, which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year.

“We are committed to making this MoU work because there is so much in terms of research and farming technologies that we can learn from SCAU,” he said.

“The simplicity and appropriateness of the technology used will suit our small rural communities and farmers greatly.”

Professor Liao said he believed the cooperation would develop into more than just collaboration between two educational institutions.

“This agreement also strengthens the ties between our two countries,” he said.

He added he looked forward to having staff and students of the University of Vudal visit SCAU in the near future.

The MoU is valid for five years.

Opposition points out bad maths in 2008 budget outcome

THE Opposition yesterday blasted the Government over its handling of last year’s budget resulting in an estimated K470 million deficit, The National reports.

Deputy Opposition leader Bart Philemon (Lae MP) said the Government did not get its sums right.

“They initially planned an expenditure of K6, 999.2 million.

“They revised this upwards by K790.7 million (to K7, 789.9 million) but ended up spending K7, 551.9 million,” Mr Philemon said.

“Effectively, they overspent by K552.7 million although they tried hiding this through the revised expenditure and net lending which showed they under-spent by K238 million.”

He told reporters at Parliament House yesterday that this was a classic case of “the sins of a Government catching up with it”.

“Without revising the budget, they were on target for a runaway budget deficit of K680.9 million,” Mr Philemon said.

“Their attempts to correct this in the revised budget, aiming for a budget deficit of K9.5 million from the K202.4 million surplus, did not work.

“They ended up with a final budget outcome of K478.5 million budget deficit,” he added.

“That should be reason enough for Treasurer and Finance Minister Patrick Pruaitch to resign.

“His inability to stick close to his own budget is a stinging indictment against the Government’s ability to manage the economy – particularly the finances – of PNG.”

The Opposition also alleged that Cabinet was “blackmailed” by Government backbenchers to allocate K534 million for

the district services improvement programme (DSIP) or they would not support

last year’s budget.

“What this means is that the Government did not honour its promises and obligations as this K534 million was part of the K6 million that was to make up each Open MP’s much publicised K10 million DSIP funding.

“The signal we got is that the Government was not communicating, consulting and managing its coalition partners and backbenchers, making the taxpayers pay for their knee-jerk reactions to make last-minute adjustments,” he said.

Mr Philemon said all the fiscal discipline he worked hard (as then treasurer and finance minister from 2002-05) seemed to have disintegrated into thin air.

He also expressed concern over the likely outcome of this year’s budget next year.

He said this was evident in the recurrent budget where, despite an upward revision by K2.9 million (from K3, 636.4 million in actual budget), the final budget outcome expenditure was an additional K127.4 million.

“Effectively, the Government spent K130.3 million when you compare the actual recurrent budget and the final recurrent budget expenditure outcome of K3, 766.7 million,” Mr Philemon said.

 

Prime Minister visiting China

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare is on an official visit to China, The National reports.
Officials decided it would be a low key affair, choosing to release a short statement on the visit hours before Sir Michael boarded the plane for Hong Kong on Monday.
The Prime Minister, who had just returned from an official visit to the Philippines, is visiting China at the invitation of president Hu Jintao.
While in Beijing, Sir Michael will witness the signing of several agreements between officials of both countries.
Sir Michael was scheduled to meet with Hu yesterday.
Today, he will hold bilateral discussions with premier Wen Jiabao.
He is also expected to meet with officials of Chinese companies with interests in PNG, including CNMB, the parent company of BNBM, and MCC, developers of the Ramu nickel mine.
Sir Michael returns to the country next Tuesday.
He is then expected to visit Australia at the end of the month.
However, authorities have not confirmed arrangements for the Australian trip.

Signs of the times?

The sad state of the once-pride of Western Highlands people - Kapal Haus, the provincial government building in Mount Hagen – which was burned to the ground last year.

In front is the famous Mt Hagen Bowling Club

Papua New Guinea vegetable farmers go hi-tech

Rural vegetable farmers in the country will soon benefit from a mobile market information service.

This means that they will be able to access fresh produce marketing information through their mobile phones.

The Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) in partnership with the fastest-growing mobile company in Papua New Guinea, Digicel, has signed a grant agreement with the Agricultural Research & Development Support Facility (ARDSF), who will implement the K500, 000 project.

The FPDA is a government-funded agency responsible for promoting a commercially-viable and sustainable horticulture industry in industry in PNG.

The objective of this project is to disseminate fresh produce market information to stakeholders, especially growers and buyers, through a mobile phone system which will run for exactly two years.

The project is an innovative project whereby the use of the scrolling function on mobile phones will be used to provide real time market information to growers, retailers, wholesalers, and other relevant stakeholders in the fresh produce industry.

The initial idea of the project is that Digicel as the project partner will be used to disseminate the market information to stakeholders, especially growers.

Those growers calling in to the service will then be surveyed electronically to determine the value of the service and to establish how it might be improved.

To begin with, a maximum of 12 products will be listed for Lae and Port Moresby markets.

 In the first three months, the project will start with only 12 products, which will slowly increase in stages until 60 products are listed.

Official market data will be collected by designated FPDA staff.

This data will be sent to Digicel by a certain fixed time in order to be made publicly available through the mobile network for access by stakeholders and the general public at another fixed time every week.

The information will be updated on a weekly basis and weekly market data will be collected from these following centres: Goroka, Mt Hagen, Lae, Kokopo, Port Moresby, Madang, Wewak, Popondetta and Alotau.

Overall, this project aims to benefit all operators in the fresh produce supply chain from growers through to transport operators to wholesalers and buyers.

This would be achieved by the increased flow of produce, and the reduced post-harvest losses to all operators involved in the supply chain.

Another envisaged economic gain of the project is the increase in income for community businesses due to higher grower incomes, and the improved health and nutrition of households at the receiving end of the supply marketing system.

 Growers should also be able to have increased knowledge of marketing their produce.

To embark on the program relevant instruments were signed by former FPDA general manager Ambassador Aiwa Olmi and former interim country director for ARDSF Dr Robin Erskine Smith.

The occasion was witnessed by ARDSF project officer for Highlands Region Bernard Pilon, ISP managers and as well as FPDA senior managers.

 FPDA and Digicel have both praised ARDSF in funding the project saying it will go a long way in assisting rural fruit and vegetable farmers.

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Prime Minister lectures Opposition on real growth factors: The country's economic growth is better off today than it was at Independence

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare reckons Papua New Guinea is in much better shape than it was it independence in 1975. Methinks it would be best to let the long-suffering people of Papua New Guinea themselves comment on that. Perhaps the PM can explain the poverty-stricken people living off garbage at the Baruni Dump in Port Moresby…”many have eyes that do not see”…you be the judge and make your comments below.

 

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare yesterday hit back at the Opposition for continuously criticising the Government using unrealistic social indicators over lack of development, The National reports.

“The Opposition uses the current methods of quantifying poverty in our country that was neither here nor there.

“Often our villages were equated to our urban settlements which do great injustice to us as a developing economy,” Sir Michael said.

“Poverty might exist in our urban areas but our rural people, who make up the majority of our population and might lack material wealth, were certainly not starving.”

He said with today’s democracy, it was difficult for any government to change cultures in bureaucracy overnight.

“It is an ongoing process and this Government would continue to address it.

“At Independence, I had a budget of about K250 million; today Southern Highlands province alone has a budget of around K300 million; our annual budget today is around K8 billion compared to the deficit in 2001 and 2002 when we took office,” Sir Michael added.

He said the Government was mindful of the world recession and would also support the growth that was taking place in the economy.

“It is important that we acknowledge the progress that we have made in the last few years and be grateful for our fortunate situation today.”

He said while many economies were suffering, PNG continued to see developments taking place in all its major towns.

“When I brought this country to Independence, there were very few locals running businesses.

“In all our major towns, our colonial administrators lived in areas such as Touaguba Hill, Wewak Hill, Namanula Hill, Rabaul and Top Town in Lae.

“Papua New Guineans 40 years ago lived in settlements and compounds in our major towns.

“Today, wealthy and middle-class Papua New Guineans had moved into all these areas,” Sir Michael said.