Call for export markets for agricultural produce

By SENIORL ANZU

 

Bulolo MP Sam Basil called on all stakeholders in agriculture to take research and development to the next level by exploring overseas market opportunities.

Speaking at the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia near Lae on Tuesday, Mr Basil said Papua New Guinea needed a proper strategy to capture markets for local crops that had potential commercial value.

 He added that besides being rich in natural resources, PNG was also strategically positioned to capitalise on market opportunities available in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia which would benefit PNG farmers.

“Papua New Guinea must develop a strategy to capture a share in these markets for some of our potential commercial fresh fruit and vegetable crops like taro, yams, mango, aibika, krusako, kalapoa, cabbages, carrots, lettuce, peanuts, galip nuts and many more”, Mr Basil said.

“If given the support and backing by the government, I am confident our small farmers can grow produce that are competitive on the internal markets.”

 He therefore indicated his willingness to lobby key players.

“I will lobby NARI and other institutions like the National Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Authority, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Foreign Affairs to establish a joint task force to formulate a strategy so that the Government can explore opportunities for our farmers to sell their produce to markets in Australia, New Zealand and Asia,” Mr Basil said.

 He stated that PNG was not even exporting to Australia, a country which had long ties with PNG for many years.

He cited an example during his recent travel to Canberra in which, during a visit to a grocery store, he found the shelves occupied with taro from Fiji, krusako from Vietnam, kalapoa from Samoa, and kulau from Thailand.

He said these were crops PNG could produce in volumes for their markets.

“It is shameful that small countries like Fiji can export taro to Australia, New Zealand and the UN, even under a military regime, and Papua New has yet to find a niche in these markets,” Mr Basil said.

Meanwhile, Mr Basil presented K298, 580 to Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Jim Simitab for a livestock development project in the Bulolo district.

The money was for purchase of cattle, buffalos, goats, ducks and fish from the Erap Food Security Research and Development Centre.

Another payment of K7, 162 was made to the Morobe Fisheries Authority for aquaculture development in the electorate.

 

Pictures of the National Agriculture Research Institute's Agriculture Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on Tuesday May 5

Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Michael Ogio and Morobe Governor Luther Wenge inspecting displays of sweet potato or kaukau breeding by NARI at the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on Tuesday

Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Michael Ogio, Morobe Governor Luther Wenge and VIPs admiring new rice varieties for the highlands conditions which NARI is putting through research at the moment and were displayed at the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on Tuesday

Display of local fresh produce by the Fresh Produce Development Agency at the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on Tuesday

Correctional Service officers and inmates of Buimo Jail outside Lae admiring wingbeans at NARI during the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on TuesdayDisplay of mammoth kaukau by Jiwaka and Simbu farmers at 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia, Lae, on Tuesday

All pictures by SENIORL ANZU of NARI

Papua New Guinea to be celebrated in London art exhibition

Caption: British contemporary artist Jeremy Millar (left) and a village chief in a recent visit to the Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay Province. Picture courtesy of Jeremy Millar

Port Moresby, Goroka and the Trobriand Islands are to be celebrated in an art exhibition in the United Kingdom in September.
The UK National Maritime Museum (NMM) will host a newly-commissioned artwork by British contemporary artist Jeremy Millar in Greenwich, London from September 24 to January 17 next year.
The exhibition, titled “Given”, takes as its starting point the pioneering work in the Trobriand Islands of the late world-renowned Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski.
Dr Malinowski revolutionised modern anthropology and introduced new ethnographic fieldwork methods through “participant observation” during his two visits to the islands of Milne Bay in 1915-16 and 1917-1918.
One of his most acclaimed works from his fieldtrips was his literary classic Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922). It was based on his observations of an ancient inter-island trade known as Kula between islanders from the Trobriands and those living between and on the main islands of Woodlark, Fergusson, Normanby and Misima.  
Dr Malinowski’s first journey from Europe to PNG took place by sea, with him leaving on June 9, 1914, via Adelaide, Australia.
 When he set off from England his childhood friend, artist and playwright Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz – who was to be his official photographer – accompanied him.
 However, following a quarrel they parted company and although he never made it to PNG, Witkiewicz set a play in PNG.
Mr Millar is interested in imagining what images might have been produced on this trip had Witkiewicz stayed.
His project will stage, with the Goroka-based Raun Raun theatre troupe, Witkiewicz’s play which will be filmed and exhibited at the NMM alongside a series of photographs produced on the Trobriand Islands.
British High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, David Dunn, said Mr Millar has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and authored a number of books.
“Jeremy's work on Dr Malinowski will showcase the Trobriand Islands and Papua New Guinea in the UK and globally, confirming PNG as the world’s most culturally-diverse nation which continues to attract the eye of academia since the time of Dr Malinowski,” said High Commissioner Dunn.
“The London exhibition is a great combination of young UK artistic talent and amazing PNG culture and history and will be a world class platform upon which to highlight to a European and global audience the depth and diversity of PNG.” he added. 

 More information on the UK National Maritime Museum (NMM) can be obtained from its website http://www.nmm.ac.uk/

 

Biotechnological approach in targeting pest and disease problems in Papua New Guinea

Words and picture by SENIORL ANZU

 

Biotechnological approaches are being used by National Agriculture Research Institute in targeting pest and disease problems linked to climate change in Papua New Guinea.

The country suffered the virtual destruction of its potato industry following the outbreak of potato late blight disease in 2003, and viral disease and pest infestations of sweet potato and other crops are increasingly hampering production and marketing.

Biotechnological solutions include the micro-propagation and field testing of blight-free and blight-resistant potato clones, and the development of clean pathogen-tested sweet potato.

Pictured is Winnie Maso of NARI explaining the crop improvement activities to school students who participated at the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia outside Lae on Tuesday.

The micro-propagation activities are undertaken at the tissue culture laboratory at Aiyura, Eastern Highlands.

From the laboratory, disease-free plantlets are supplied to the Fresh Produce Development Agency for development purposes through its farmer network.

 

 

 

 

Prime Minister hits back

Sir Michael defends ‘poverty’ comments

 

From The National, Tuesday, May 5, 2009

 

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare yesterday launched a stinging attack on the Opposition, while also strongly defending his Government’s track record since taking the reins seven years ago.

At a press conference yesterday Sir Michael, who returned from a week-long State visit to Australia on Sunday, took aim at Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta for his comments in the media criticising him for saying there was no poverty in PNG.

Last week, Sir Mekere had taken the Prime Minister to task for telling the Australian media that no one went hungry in PNG, saying many people in PNG were starving and the majority of people still lacked basic services.

Sir Michael questioned what Sir Mekere was doing to improve services in his own Moresby Northwest electorate.

“There has been a lot of finger pointing going on by some urban Members of Parliament and I want to know what these urban Members, especially the leader of the Opposition, have done with the increases in their allocations over the last four or so years.

“Are dispensers now stocked with medicines in electorates like Lae (Deputy Opposition leader Bart Philemon’s electorate) and Moresby Northwest?

“With the accumulated law and order funds, has Gerehu police station been improved to better serve the community?

“I hear Baruni dump being brought up in the media recently.

“Can the local Member (Sir Mekere) tell us how he has used his district allocation to assist in alleviating urban poverty?

“With the district road improvement programme, are there new roads in these urban electorates?” Sir Michael asked.

“We have given each of the 89 districts adequate funds since the first term of this Government.

“In the first year, it was K1 million, then K4 million and recently K10 million.

“Yes, we lack material wealth in rural areas where the vast majority of our people live but they are not short of food and water,” the Prime Minister reiterated.

He said social services should be improving with the resources that his Government had been continuously pouring into all Government departments and districts.

“It is not for me to make inspections of aid posts and schools; it’s the responsibility of managers in those sectors.

“We constantly hear politicians giving classrooms, books, libraries to schools but hear so many complaints of lack of services.

“Let me remind everyone that MPs are basically policy makers and not implementers.

“We have a machinery that is responsible for that and I will ask the minister for public service to inform the public of what the Government has been doing to improve service delivery.

“We recognise that there are deficiencies and have ploughed money into the districts to complement the work of departments such as police, Works, Transport, Health and Education,” the Prime Minister said.

Sir Michael said the public sector was a stumbling block, making delivery of services to districts difficult.

Referring to Sir Mekere, he said people living in glass houses should not throw stones.

“My advice to the Opposition leader is he must stop playing politics with people’s lives and start making the resources provided by this Government work in his urban electorate,” Sir Michael said.

 

Don't kiss a pig!

Whatever you do in these dark days of the aporkalyse, don't do what the child above is doing! Photographer unknown.

Farm pictures from a farm in Queensland, Australia

Captions: 1. Kangaroo convention 2. Purple bottlebrush 3. Captain Cook bottlebrush 4. Baby hare

 

Pictures sent in from former Papua New Guinea kiap, Paul Oates, now running a farm in Queensland, Australia.