Bulolo goes big on farming

Bulolo MP Sam Basil drives the new tractor with an excited Mumeng locallevel government president Mathias Jack at his side. Picture by PISAI GUMAR

By PISAI GUMAR

BULOLO district on Tuesday presented K300, 000 to the Department of Agriculture’s Erap Food Security Resource and Development Centre for the purchase of cattle and other livestock.

The money was presented during the National Agriculture Research Institute’s agriculture innovations show at Bubia outside Lae.

The payment was for 160 head of cattle, eight buffalos, 160 goats, 4, 000 ducklings, 20,000 fingerlings and training of trainers in livestock farming system and drugs and medication for animals.

The funding is also for upkeep, extension and advisory support visits by technical officers to assist farmers.

The project was initiated to encourage farmers develop sustainable livestock farming systems and improve family nutrition with the surplus to be sold.

The livestock development project is initiated for Wau Rural, Upper Watut, Buang and Mumeng LLGs.

Meanwhile, the first of four new multi-purpose tractors was delivered to Mumeng from Ela Motors in Lae on Monday to develop the LLG’s agricultural capacity.

Morobe law and order committee chairman Benson Suwang and deputy administrator Patilias Gamato on Monday launched the tractor at Timini Primary School along with with its trailer, slasher, plough and rotor.

“It will help farmers plough agricultural land, clean the government station on weekdays, and transport local farmers’ coffee bags and fresh food to markets,” said Bulolo MP Sam Basil.

Fall 2009 Jefferson Fellowships: The Right Climate for Confronting Climate Change?

Fall 2009 Jefferson Fellowships for Journalists

Dates: October 25-November 14, 2009

Theme: “The Right Climate for Confronting Climate Change?”

Travel Destinations: Honolulu, Hawaii; Monterey and Palo Alto, California; Boulder, Colorado; Washington, D.C.

Who Can Apply: Working print, broadcast, and on-line journalists in the United States, Asia and the Pacific Islands. Five years of experience preferred. English fluency required.

Funding: Airfare, lodging, per diem and most other program expenses are provided through a grant from The Freeman Foundation of Stowe, Vermont. Participants are responsible for all applicable visa fees and any additional visa-related expenses. 

Application Deadline: Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

Information and applications: For more information about the program and how to apply, please visit: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/jefferson.

Contacts: Send applications and questions by email to jefferson@eastwestcenter.org or fax at (808) 944-7600. For phone inquiries, please contact Ann Hartman, Jefferson Fellowships Coordinator, at (808) 944-7619.

Theme: “The Right Climate for Confronting Climate Change?”

The new U.S. presidential administration of Barack Obama has increased attention to climate change in advance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in December 2009. With this backdrop, the Fall 2009 Jefferson Fellowships program will explore the ability of U.S. domestic and foreign policy to confront the important economic challenges and opportunities involved in addressing climate change and its consequences. While near-term costs may affect the livelihoods of Americans already struggling in the current U.S. recession, addressing climate change also presents opportunities to strengthen important parts of the economy and create jobs. In addition, the Fall 2009 program will examine how the issue of climate change may serve as a way for the United States to rebuild partnerships and alliances around the world and to bolster national security. 

The program will begin in Honolulu with one week of discussions, field visits and participant presentations that explore the challenge of climate change throughout the Asia Pacific-U.S. region. Participants will share impacts, responses and policy challenges from the perspectives of their own countries. The study tour will focus on policy challenges and opportunities for the United States through visits to key destinations on the U.S. mainland.

Russian Cake Contest

Russian Cake Contest
Yes, everything you see is a cake with icing
The sewing machine and other items look so real it
Looks like they are the real thing -- but...they are all just cake and
icing.

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.