Farmers representative Alex Wageri (centre) extends his appreciation to DAL and Central provincial administration officials for the donation of rice mills
DAL food security officer Steven Hoko (right) explains rice farming techniques to keen farmers during a recent World Food Day program held in Manus province.-Pictures courtesy of DAL
Story and picture by BUSISI SIWAKA of DAL
Rice farmers in the
The farmers were given rice seeds in 2003 by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock to plant but their main problem has been the lack of milling equipment apart from high transport costs.
Getting their act together, the farmers formed the Manari Rice Farmers Association, and have sought further assistance from the Central provincial administration and DAL.
President Alex Wageri said about 28 farmers established the association and their main objective was to acquire a rice mill from the appropriate authorities.
He said Manari villagers had the potential to grow more rice but they needed milling machines and other technical support.
“We have been trying hard to get the rice milling machines since 2004,” Mr Wageri said.
Their dreams came true late last year when DAL handed over two rice milling machines to the farmers.
DAL, Central provincial administration and the farmers association also signed an agreement for the use, management and maintenance of the mills.
Mr Wageri said: “We are very privileged to have the mills and today marks one of the successes for our people.”
He said the mills would boost rice production amongst six villages and lead to food self-sufficiency.
He said farmers were eagerly looking forward to growing rice in bigger plots in 2010.
Officials from the provincial administration and DAL urged the farmers to take good care of the milling machines.
They said rice cultivation would also boost food self-sufficiency within their households and community.
Caption: Potential peanut farmers from the Highlands checking seeds of some of the high-yielding peanut varieties suitable for cultivation in the Highlands.- Picture courtesy of NARI
Research has identified high yielding peanut varieties for
These include nine short-duration and six medium-duration varieties for the lowlands and five short-duration and four medium-duration varieties for the
The short-duration varieties require about 90-120 days to fully mature whilst medium-duration varieties need 130-160 days under the
These improved peanut varieties have been recommended and released to the PNG farming community.
The recommendation was based on field research by the PNG National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Trukai Agri-Business, Ramu Agri-Industries (PNG) and Queensland Department of Primary Industries (
Peanuts are a most-nutritious and easily-grown food crop.
They can complement the cereal and tuber food staples as root and tuber crops lack the essential proteins necessary for balanced diet.
Peanuts also improve soil fertility for other crops and can be a major source of cash income, particularly for women.
However, current peanut production levels in PNG are generally low with pod yields of 0.5-1 tonnes per ha when the crop’s potential stands at 3.4 tonne per ha with appropriate improved production technologies.
With a domestic market valued at K29 million and serious engagement of farmers in peanut production, it is imperative that PNG farmers should have access to appropriate improved production technology for enhanced yields and economic gains.
Peanuts are one of the most-profitable crops in PNG, producing around 30, 000 tones each year and providing a major portion of family income in the PNG Highlands.
Interested farmers can enquire with the local partners.
Meanwhile, a new peanut production manual is also available for peanut producers, processors and educators to further enhance the crop as a leading industry in PNG.
The new booklet, titled ‘Growing Peanuts in
The 77-page document provides scientific information about crop agronomy, as well as being a practical, field reference tool for smallholders, peri-urban gardeners, researchers, students and remote villagers who grow peanuts.
A TWIN Otter plane, on a commercial flight, crashed into a garden when taking off on Monday afternoon at Kikori in the Gulf
On board the plane were two pilots and three passengers, who were heading for Kerema when the plane skidded off the airstrip at about 3pm.
Senior Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CAA) officials said the plane was a commercial flight for Airlines PNG.
A full investigation into the crash has begun and will be conducted by both the CAA and Airlines PNG.
No one was hurt in the crash.
In a recent Editorial in Papua New Guinea’s The National, it discussed how guns are changing the way PNG people live. 'Power now revolves around who owns the most powerful gun around', it is contended. But are guns the disease or only the symptom?
On David Ulg Ketepa's website 'Kange Nga Kona' recently, there is an excellent article titled 'Ways you and I can combat crime in our societies'. Six very constructive ways are listed to combat crime. It has been suggested that crime is 95% opportunity and 5% intent. When communities reduce the opportunities, crime rates plummet. Many parts of the world now organise a Neighbourhood Watch scheme where citizens and police combine to prevent crime before it happens.
Yet the question still remains as to why PNG appears to be lapsing into an ever decreasing spiral of gun culture. A clue to the reason is in the article: 'Power now revolves around who owns the most powerful gun around.' Could it be that the government PNG no longer has any 'power' and therefore unable to govern?
In an ongoing campaign to reduce the 'road toll' or traffic accidents involving injuries and fatalities, Australian State governments have continually chanted the jingo 'Speed kills'. Yet is it the speed (a non
personal but measurable fact), that a vehicle is travelling at that actually causes the accident or the inability of the person behind the wheel to control the vehicle? Conveniently, governments trumpet how they are working to reduce the road toll by penalising drivers who speed. There are now unmarked speed traps and automatic cameras installed in many States that photograph anyone travelling over the speed limit. The outcomes of this very prescriptive action have produced vast amounts of revenue for the State governments. It seems to have had little impact on the overall accident statistics however. Vehicles are still being sold that can easily exceed the speed limit. Also, there seems to be no real attempt to address why some drivers are apparently unable to effectively control their cars. These so called 'freedoms' are clearly ‘off limits’.
So is gun control likewise 'off limits' to the PNG government and if so, why? There can only be two reasons. The government is either:
· Unable to control of the problem and, as highlighted in The National, 'dragging their feet on tabling the Gun Committee Report and in implementing its 244 recommendations; or
· It finds the 'status quo' very convenient and the real issue of national law and order doesn't have to be addressed.
So it seems that when it comes to government solutions are concerned, it’s far too easy to blame the symptoms and conveniently ignore the disease.
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Editorial in the PNG newspaper The National
Guns changing the way we live
THERE are communities scattered throughout the towns of PNG who are landless.
When you take a closer look at these landless people, they have varying backgrounds. One group comprises the people who have grown up in towns and cities.
This is the class of people whose parents might have had land holdings on their traditional land but through a lifetime of employment in towns, they have left behind children who have not gone home to claim what is rightfully theirs by inheritance.
And since land holding is a communal thing at rural settings, where physical presence and land use speaks louder than anything else, these town grown children are essentially outcasts in their own land.
They join the increasing numbers that cluster around squatter settlements and make grabs at State or traditional land on the fringes of towns. These children are there to stay.
They do not have any place to go to in any case.
This group is mostly youths and the oldest of the group would now themselves be rearing a second generation of landless children.
There is yet another group of landless who are placing pressure upon limited resources and service lines on the fringes of towns and cities.
These are the people who have been displaced in tribal conflicts and hail mostly from the five Highlands provinces.
These people had homes, gardens and land but they have been physically and brutally forced from their homes.
Studies will show these people fled for their lives and although they yearn to go back, it is not there for them.
And the reason why they cannot return is the gun culture that has sprung up.
The gun rules society today.
Once upon a time, tribal conflicts were a conflict resolution method.
When mediation and all other forms of peaceful settlement failed, a conflict was taken to the battlefield.
The victor took the spoils. People fled the land but eventually came back and surrounding tribes always ensured that land belonging to a tribe remained intact for that tribe.
Not any more. With guns, tribes face wholesale massacre and are fleeing never to return.
The gun is changing the way we live. Guns are used to maul, to maim, to rape, to rob and to scare away entire communities.
Yet no government, including this one, has come up with a firm policy on what to do with the proliferation of guns in PNG.
The Somare administration established the Guns Committee in 2005 under the chairmanship of retired General Jerry Singirok.
Immediately it undertook a nationwide assessment of the guns proliferation issue and related issues. The team undertook a nationwide road show and spoke to a huge cross-section of the population.
Not surprisingly, locals and expatriates spoke passionately about guns and the cost to the nation of their illegal use.
Although concerns were voiced everywhere, it was in the Highlands that it became abundantly clear how guns were completely ruling and in most instances ruining the lives of communities there.
Entire villages have been wiped out as a result and whole communities have been displaced permanently, most of whom are to be found in urban settings such as Lae and Port Moresby.
Often the animosities follow these migrants into the cities so that the nation has witnessed gruesome payback killings right in the centre of towns in broad daylight.
Guns have also tilted the balance of power at the community level.
Power now revolves around who owns the most powerful gun around.
In the competition, therefore, to gain power tens of thousands of kina, young brides and scores of domestic livestock, particularly pigs, have been given in exchange for guns.
So why are the Government and Parliament dragging their feet on tabling the Gun Committee Report and in implementing its 244 recommendations?
It makes you wonder whether our leadership is in touch with what is happening.
By JACOB POK in The National
POLICE arrested three Correctional Services officers yesterday in connection with the escape of alleged bank robbery mastermind William Kapris and 11 other dangerous prisoners.
The three warders were taken to the Boroko Police Station and locked up yesterday.
They were questioned by police investigating the Jan 12 escape by the 12 from the maximum security unit at Bomana jail outside
The three warders have been charged under Sections 138 and 140 of the PNG Criminal Code with aiding and abetting the escape of the prisoners.
National Capital District metropolitan commander, Supt Fred Yakasa, confirmed yesterday afternoon that the three men had been arrested and locked up at the Boroko police cells for questioning while more investigations were still being carried out.
He said two of the officers were the ones manning the maximum security unit gates at the time of the escape, while the third was the one who had called the two officers to tell them that a lady, a human rights “lawyer”, was on her way to visit a prisoner client.
Supt Yakasa said police believe the three officers had breached all security procedures of the CS.
“The permission to allow visitors into the maximum security unit only comes from three people: the deputy Correctional Services Commissioner (Operations), the Correctional Services Commissioner, or a
He said the officers manning the maximum security unit at the time were senior officers who had been in the job for a long time and should have had vast knowledge of the security and visitation
procedures.
“We believe it is a planned thing, as there was a clear breach of security. The officers know very well that they cannot act upon orders from elsewhere unless it’s from the three authorities,” Supt Yakasa said.
He said the three officers would be thoroughly questioned about their alleged involvement and that of others.
He said the names of the three warders could not be disclosed at this stage as investigations were still in progress. They will appear in committal court today.
Kapris and 11 others were sprung from the jail on Jan 12, allegedly by a female who posed as a lawyer for one of the prisoners. She allegedly slipped through a gun, which the prisoners used to detain the warders before they escaped. None of the prisoners or the female “lawyer” has been captured.
Police are offering a reward of K10, 000 for the capture, or information that could lead to the capture of the 12.
Caption: Clay bricks, which can be easily made in PNG, could help ease our housing crisis
A senior
Reichert Thanda, an assistant secretary with the Department of National Planning and Monitoring who is currently studying for his masters at the
“I fear for the worse because, if the relevant stakeholders including the government are not taking appropriate steps to address the housing issue, then this really is a crisis situation given huge projects like the LNG which is expected to employ close to 5-7000 people,” he said.
Mr Thanda proposed steps that relevant stakeholders could apply in addressing this “potentially dangerous” situation:
· Form a national multi-stakeholder committee comprising key central agencies like Treasury, Finance, Planning and the PM’s Department to as part of the urbanisation policy to free up customary land within the periphery of the Port Moresby City (through registration and leasing of customary land to private investors and individuals to build their houses);
· Two options: engage youths in manufacture of bricks through supervision by perhaps Habitat for Humanity (e.g. case of
· Open up and expand the financial and banking sector so that credit facilities are made available including through Nambawan Super and Nasfund. Why not members obtain housing loans directly from Nambawan Super or Nasfund including the saving societies instead of the banks? The market for credit facilities in PNG is completely underdeveloped for average income earners to invest in such properties in order to improve their living standards.
· Government through a Cabinet decision must allocate K1 million each for staff housing from next year’s Development Budget (starting with central agencies and line ministries and eventually to the provinces) which can be used as either collateral or applied in a scheme describe in point;
· In light of the LNG project, Government must quickly formulate a single structure salary system instead of the current discriminatory dual system; and
· The same committee with National Capital District Commission should plan for the city’s expansion immediately.
“While the above proposals are not limited in scope, I am sure it will generate a lot of bright ideas from the people of PNG,” Mr Thanda said.
“Let’s not look to the foreigners to provide us with solutions but look around to see how we can utilise existing skills and resources to improve the lives of our fellow citizens.
“Let me therefore conclude with this quote from Marcel Proust: ‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes’.”
