Future food production in Papua New Guinea

From PAUL OATES

There has been a recent suggestion that Papua New Guinea could become a food source for China and India.
There is no doubt that with careful planning, PNG could become a major food exporter. However the lessons of history should not be overlooked. When humans first started to expand in population, this occurred along major river systems. The Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile, the Wang Ho, the Ganges, etc. These rivers provided extensive river flats where cultivation was relatively easy and water for irrigation was constantly available. The comes a time however when people power can only produce so much excess food before either a rapidly expanding population consumes the excess food or conditions for food production start to change.
PNG has traditionally grown her food in gardens that are made up of many different varieties of food crops. This has the advantage that no one crop will exhaust the soil or the nutriments that crop needs and disease and insect pests will not increase to the point where food production becomes non viable.
One person can only produce so much extra food before becoming overworked. At this point in human history, humans turned to animals to help. Bullocks, oxen or buffaloes were used to pull ploughs and till the soil before a crop was planted. This expanded the area one person could manage and so expanded the amount of extra food that person could produce and therefore export. Populations continued to expand to 'soak up' the available excess food resources being produced. Then in Europe, the horse collar was invented and this further expanded to amount of arable land that could be used to produce food. Populations continued to expand. The corollary for this increased food production required a number of factors to be recognised however.
Firstly, in Europe framers practiced crop rotation so that diseases and pests would not build up in the same area of land and the soil would be left 'fallow' or unused to recover some of its nutriments. Additional nutriments were constantly added such as animal and green manure to help keep the soil healthy and productive.
The second factor emerged that in order to be economically viable; the total area being farmed had to expand past the point where one person owned each small holding. Land alienation then started to create a real problem as people started to sell their land or were moved off it forcibly.
In modern times, board acre farming was further increased with the use of machines such as tractors and with chemical fertilizers. This can create huge surpluses of food but it also requires capital to buy, use and maintain machinery and to purchase insecticides, anti fungals and fertilizers. At this point, a few farmers can produce enough food to feed the many dispossessed that have gravitated to the cities in search of a living. Distribution systems were then required to take the food to the cities and this required many middle men who ran the transport, roads and distribution network and sales to the city folk.
This gradual process has not yet happened to any large extent in PNG. To suddenly move to board acre farming would require a number of radical changes to the way PNG has traditionally produced her food. Land is still basically owned by clans and tribes that must make group decisions about what will be done with their communal land. This traditional practice tends to inhibit the management of large areas of farm land. Capital must be found to buy, work and maintain machinery. Crop rotation must be practiced to ensure the available soil doesn't become exhausted and a build up of pest and disease doesn't happen however expensive fertilizers and anti fungals must still be purchased.
In Queensland, the Primary Industries Department scientists were reported by the Post Courier to be working to save the sweet potato industry in Papua New Guinea and rest of the South Pacific. The vegetable is the staple food of many islanders, whose crops are declining because of viruses that cut yields.
The Solomon Islands is also seeking assistance in controlling these problems. Primary Industries Department Rockhampton based sweet potato research specialist Eric Coleman has been in the Papua New Guinea highlands as part of a $2 million project to identify the cause of the insidious yield decline. Mr. Coleman said Papua New Guinea had an amazing variety of sweet potatoes, which had been attacked by some of the 22 known viruses that could affect the vegetable. "`As you get more viruses, the sweet potatoes get longer, skinnier and uglier,'' he said.
Again in the Post Courier, a research scientist Dr Sergie Bang of the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) was quoted as saying that social indicators for PNG did not look favourable, especially when malnutrition in children and deaths at birth for women were rampant. He said during the NARI low-land program open day themed "NARI working in partnership with dry lowland farmers" at Laloki, outside Port Moresby that PNG faced a huge challenge. Its population growth was rising at 3 per cent every year and productivity in the agriculture sector was growing at only 1 per cent yearly. "This is a serious problem. It means PNG is not growing enough food (domestically) to feed its growing population," Dr Bang said. "Unless we lift agriculture production by 3 per cent or more, we will not be able to feed our population."
The Queen's husband, Prince Philip was quoted as saying, "The food prices are going up - everyone thinks it's to do with not enough food, but it's really that demand is too great, too many people,'' said the outspoken royal, then 86, according to a British newspaper. "It's a little embarrassing for everybody, no one quite knows how to handle it,'' he said.
So PNG must start thinking about these issues as she contemplates the possibility of trying to produce food for China and India. Both China and India started out with more arable land for food production and the opportunity of growing broad scale grain crops using first animals and then machines. If these countries are now not able to feed their growing populations, where will that principle leave a future PNG?

Shades of Avatar Blue?

From PAUL OATES

In the Science Fiction blockbuster film 'Avatar', a familiar scenario is presented of a rapacious mining company pushing local landowners off their land to get at the desirable minerals beneath. It was reported that the film's Director and Writer, Mr James Cameron, used an unusual mountain formation in China as the basis for the peculiar floating mountains in the 'Halleluiah region' of the mythical planet in the motion picture. So like the Chinese mountains where those in the film that it was claimed the locals have now changed their local name for these mountains to the one highlighted in Cameron's film.

There have been recent comments and articles on websites and blogs about PNG concerning the Ramu Nickel mine near Madang. These articles seem to have brought the Avatar scenario clearly into real time focus.

There have been concerns by the local landowners that they are being treated as second class citizens by the owners of the mine. Claims have been made that local people have been refused treatment at the mine's health centre in favour of foreign workers. There have been threats and confrontation between local PNG people and the mine workers who have reportedly been contemptuous of differing work values and practices between PNG and their home country.

This huge mine is reportedly going to empty it's tailings into the open sea near Madang, after first pumping this waste along a pipeline through to the coast. The PNG government has just approved the use of this method of disposing of mine waste. The waste pipeline will be exiting through a hole blasted in the coral reef and out into the open sea. Locals have reported that the pipeline's construction is of very dubious quality and they hold fears about what happens if the pipe bursts. Previous damage from poisonous mine tailings that escaped from a Highlands gold mine have reportedly created severe damage to the river and water source in another region of PNG. In New Caledonia, there have been ongoing concerns for many years about the environmental damage the local Nickel mine has inflicted on a similar tropical paradise.

In an article on mining resources recently, a mining engineer claimed that the output of the Ramu Nickel mine had been grossly undervalued and that PNG will loose billions in revenue based on the current arrangement the PNG government has agreed to. On an overseas website run by a PNGian a claim has been made that the PNG PM Somare, accepted 40 million kina at the time of the last PNG general elections from this foreign mining company and then used this money to help 'buy' elected members to ensure he retained political power.

A recent article now suggests that the mine owners, who apparently employ PNG police as security for their operations, are using this police force to intimidate and harass landowners to get them to move so that the mine can commence operations on their traditional land. It is claimed that some landowners have accepted the inevitable and taken the K500 and a few tools and tried to start again away from their traditional land. Some landowners are however resisting this pressure and another confrontation appears likely.

Those people who are yet to see the reported splendours of Madang may not have much time left. The senario developments in the film Avatar seem all too likely to eventuate.
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http://www.eca-watch.org/problems/asia_pacific/kanaky/WSJ_Inco_Kanaky_12july06.htm
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Courtesy of David Ketepa's http://www.pngemmiyet.blogspot.com/

Landowners resist Chinese attempts at forced resettlement

Landowners from the Mauri clan in Madang Province are resisting police intimidation and pressure from the Chinese Metallurgical Construction company (MCC) to resettle their homes, claiming the company has not agreed to properly compensate them for their loss.

MCC is building the huge Ramu nickel mine and wants to dig the mine pit straight under Venevi village but local families are worried by the environmental damage the mine will cause and claim they have been intimidated by police and company officials.

Twelve families have already been removed to a temporary site after being told they had to move by armed police. Each family was given K500, a hammer and saw, nails and a tarpaulin according to the villagers.

Villagers who are refusing to move claim they have been visited eight times by police telling them they have to move. On their last visit the police forced family leaders to go the MCC offices where they were told they had to take the K500 and move.

As well as being told to leave their homes, the clan members have been told they can no longer make gardens, or fish, hunt or gather food from the wild within the mining area. As compensation the families were originally supplied on a fortnightly basis with foreign rice, tinned fish, flour and biscuits and an allowance of K150 for kumu - but these rations have now been cut back

Villages also claim the construction work has already destroyed their drinking water supplies and the company is having to truck in water for them. They also say that the company is only offering one small house for each extended family - forcing three generations with multiple children and grandchildren to live in cramped and squalid conditions.

Opposition claims Chinese miner has paid K40 million to keep Somare in power

Rumours have been circulating for the past week that Prime Minister Michael Somare has been given a war chest of K40 million to shore up support for his government from among the nations 109 MPs.

The source of the K40 million has been a mystery - although the whisper on the streets has been that the money has been given by the 'kongs' (a common slang word that is used to refer to anyone from SE Asia). But now the Sunday Chronicle has published allegations from unnamed opposition MPs that a 'large Asian mining company' has provided the funds.

There is only one large Asian mining company operating in PNG - the Chinese Metallurgical Construction company which is developing the huge Ramu Nickel mine in Madang province. So has CMC provided K40 million to the government of Michael Somare to defend itself against a vote of no confidence?

These allegations of Somare buying and luring MPs for support aren't surprising and aren't new either

Perhaps we will never know the answer to that question. Though it would seem to make sense for the Chinese given the controversy over their mining operation; the questionable environmental permits for deep sea tilings disposal and coral blasting; the shoddy construction work for its 40km tilings pipeline; and complaints from local people over working conditions, land theft and other human rights abuses.

It is hugely ironic that Prime Minister Somare, who is widely rumoured to be about to try and clean up his governments image by sacking Minister's Pruaitch and Tienstein, is at the same time accused of accepting a massive slush fund to buy off the support of his fellow Members of Parliament.
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courtesy of http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/668/6666
NEW CALEDONIA: Indigenous people take on mining giant


17 November 1993
Eloise Schnierer

The New Caledonian islands lie 1200 kilometres off the east coast of Australia. A French territory that is co-governed by a provincial New Caledonian parliament and the French government, New Caledonia (or Kanaky) is a biodiversity hot-spot.

The main island, Grand Terre, is bounded by a barrier reef that is second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and which is home to an immeasurable number of marine species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth.

The indigenous Kanak people of New Caledonia have fought for decades to protect this unique environment from the degradation caused by mining and for the recognition of their rights as indigenous people.

On March 25, management for the Inco-operated Goro Nickel mine, situated in the Southern Province, acknowledged a huge landslide that affected the nearby marine lagoon, the oldest and largest protected marine area in New Caledonia and an area soon to be nominated for World Heritage listing.

The Kanaks living near the Goro Nickel project have been struggling for years to have Inco heed their calls for negotiations about the mine's environmental and social impacts.

On March 29, tensions between the locals and Goro-Nickel erupted again with a blockade established at the site that forced mining operations to stop. The blockade was a response to the company's plans to construct a pipeline that would release mine waste water into the sea and to use nearby Lake Yate as a source of water for mining operations.

Opponents of the plans argue that the marine environment will be degraded and the local community's access to clean, fresh water from Lake Yate will be affected.

The provincial government responded by deploying riot police and troops to remove the blockade, at times using tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protesters, and invoking "anti-terrorist" measures against one Kanak leader.

Goro Nickel says the overall cost of the blockade and the damage caused to heavy machinery by protesters amounts to US$10 million - although no evidence has been made public backing this assertion. Eight protesters were arrested and many other activists have been in hiding.

Jacques Boengkih, spokesperson for the Agency for Kanak Development, says the ensuing police search for these activists has been brutal. "This morning they sent some police to search the house of Raphael Mapou, who has been hiding for the last month, and in that house only the mother and some minor kids are living there and so it was once again a brutal police search of the house", he said.

Mapou is former president of the Rheebu Nuu committee, a Kanak organisation established as a local monitoring body over the Goro Nickel project to protect indigenous rights. The committee was responsible for organising the March blockade.

The Rheebu Nuu committee has been accused by New Caledonia's Southern Province President Philippe Gomes of misleading the public. In a comment made to a New Caledonian television broadcaster, Gomes said he believes the reasons behind the Rheebu Nuu committee's actions were not environmental, and that their real motive is mining royalties.

But according to Boengkih, "Environmental issues have been always first on the list of claims from the chiefs from the south. They have been always saying that the company should be careful because some areas are sacred sites and in the sea are fishing grounds and they have always been calling for tough measures to protect the environment."

Boengkih also alleged that the provincial government has misrepresented the Kanak claim for royalties. The Rheebu Nuu committee has stated that royalties should be paid to the government, and not to the individual indigenous groups concerned.

Furthermore, Boengkih said that New Caledonia is way out of step with other countries on the issue of mining royalties. "Everywhere else, in Australia or Canada, people have experienced access to benefit sharing from the exploitation of their resources and this is no more than what people are asking for and they are asking for that being paid to the government and not to themselves."

Inco has repeatedly declined negotiations with Rheebu Nuu on the basis that French law does not recognise Indigenous rights. However, the preamble to the Les Accords De Noumea, signed in 1998, recognised the Kanak peoples as distinct from other citizens of the French republic.

On November 8, 2004, the French Tribunal in Noumea found that the political and cultural rights of the indigenous people of New Caledonia exist and are protected by law.

Goro Nickel has not obtained the free, prior and informed consent of the Kanak people for its plans to further develop the mining project. The Senat Coutumier (Kanak Customary Senate) specifically withheld consent in 2002.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have both called on governments to ensure the participation of indigenous people in decisions affecting their lives and their natural resources. It is on this basis that the Kanaks seek a negotiated and legally binding settlement regarding royalties and the social and environmental impacts of the Inco Goro-Nickel mining project.

Despite much opposition, Boengkih says the Kanaks will continue to push for roundtable negotiations with Goro Nickel, the French government, the New Caledonian government, the Senat Coutumier and the Rheebu Nuu committee.

A series of peaceful demonstrations took place on May Day in Kanak communities up and down the east and west coasts of Grande Terre. They aimed to show Inco Goro Nickel and the French and New Caledonian governments that the Kanak communities directly affected by the Goro Nickel mine are not alone in their opposition to the proposed development of the site.

And their message is clear: the French and New Caledonian governments and the mining industry must recognise and respect their rights as indigenous people.

From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.

Planning Dept releases K20m for urgent road works

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

THE Department of National Planning has released K20 million for urgent road maintenance on sections of the Highlands Highway although no work plans have been submitted by Department of Works, The National reports.

National Planning and Development Minister Paul Tiensten accused the Works Department for failing to submit work plans for the use of the money.

He also denied claims that National Planning was deliberately holding back road maintenance funds.

He said the National Government had parked between K40 million and K50 million with the National Roads Authority (NRA) whose role is to maintain major roads in the country.

 “What is happening to this money held with the National Roads Authority?”

Mr Tiensten said compensation was another big issue as most funds for routine road maintenance had been used for this purpose.

“There is a lot of money going into settling compensation claims along the highway and now we have no money to fix the roads,” Mr Tiensten said.

“Compensation is an unbudgeted item. We cannot use maintenance money to pay for compensation.”

Mr Tiensten said the other K10 million would be released once his department received a work plan from Works.

“We do not want to release money to pay for compensation.”

He said although money was budgeted, it depended on the cash-flow before money could be released.

Mr Tiensten said based on the cash flow situation, the Treasury would then release the warrants to National Planning to make payments to relevant organisations.

“We are not deliberately holding onto the money and that is why the two secretaries for Works and National Planning must sit down and sort it out,” Mr Tiensten said.

He said the Highlands Highway was a National Government priority road, with the Asian Development Bank’s multi-trance facility for Enga and Southern Highlands roads.

“We need the Treasurer, myself and Works Minister to sit down to find a way forward instead of going to the media.

“Bad mouthing each other and shifting blame is the last thing we want.

“People want us to take responsibility to ensure we address these issues as a whole Government approach.

“You should not pass the buck to me. We should address this at Cabinet level instead of making public statements in the media.”

He was responding to Works Minister Don Polye and his secretary Joel Luma, who on Wednesday blasted the National Planning for withholding money while the Highlands Highway remained close to traffic with landslips at Daulo pass.

Mr Luma confirmed the money was released today.

“Yes we have received the warrant of K20 million which will be used to off-set costs and work on the blocked section of the Highlands Highway,” Mr Luma said.

K1.5 million for police ops queried

QUESTIONS are being raised within and outside the police force on the whereabouts of the K1.5 million released by the Government last month for police operations to recapture the 12 dangerous criminals who escaped from Bomana prison’s  maximum security facility on Jan 12, The National reports.

Despite this, National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop yesterday announced that City Hall was finalising paperwork to allocate between K300, 000 and K400, 000 to help in police operations.

Mr Parkop, in commending the hard working police officers engaged in the successful operations thus far under the command of NCD Central Police chief Awan Sete and NCD metropolitan commander Supt Fred Yakasa, told The National that he could not confirm the actual amount that was allocated by City Hall to police today.

NCD police have so far recaptured seven dangerous criminals from the Jan 12 escape, with the two latest captures earlier this week.

Mr Parkop said: “This was a job well done and proved that police officers were shaping up to discharge their duties more effectively.

“I would also like to encourage the community to keep supporting the work of police and not assist the criminals as they were not good role models for society.”

He called on the remaining five escapees to surrender and to serve their time so that they become good citizens while they were in prison.

“The PNG justice system allows for pardon and parole which you can apply for once you are halfway into of serving your term,” he reminded the fugitives.

 

3 businesses plan on Tari

AT LEAST three reputable business organisations have unveiled plans to establish branches and properties in Tari, Soutern Highlands region, The National reports.

They also expressed interest in the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

However, all this depends on the Hela people and how they deal with the law and order concerns in the province - a factor that would decide whether or not business would really come in for good.

Tari Pori MP and Education Minister James Marape recently told the people to take advantage of the opportunities in spin-off businesses to be generated by the gas project.

One of such entities is the National Development Bank (NDB) which plans to construct a two-storey building office complex worth K5 million, managing director Richard Maru said.

The project, however, needed an approval from the National Executive Council, he said.

“I commend the NDB board in their bold move to open up a new branch in Tari despite pressing law and order problems,” Mr Marape said, adding that apart from giving out loans, NDB would operate as a full-fledged bank with services like passbook savings account, micro finance and others.

Toyota dealer, Ela Motors Toyota Tsusho (PNG) Ltd, also plans to open a branch in Tari, Mr Marape said.

Ela Motors, according to chief executive David Purcell, expected an increase in its business by 30% in the next 18 months from vehicle sales, with demands coming from the PNG LNG project.

Mr Marape urged the people to respect and maintain law and order in Tari and the Hela region and make use of business opportunities to improve their income.

He said the NDB branch would enable potential Tari businessmen and women seek loans for small-scale businesses such as growing coffee, vegetable farming, poultry, husbandry, trade stores, guest houses and public transport services, among others.

Another company, Kenmore Industrial Division, announced last December that it would construct a new K40 million steel factory in Tari this year.

 

NBPOL posts lower profit

NEW Britain Palm Oil Ltd, a large-scale integrated industrial producer of sustainable palm oil in Papua New Guinea, has announced its unaudited preliminary results for the year ended Dec 31, 2009.

The company posted a lower profit before tax of US$85.3 million (K234 million), down from the US$106.3 million (K291.63 million) earned in 2008. The amount however excluded the effect of revaluing biological assets.

It disclosed that its revenue during the year in review dropped to US$323.8 million (K888.34 million) from US$352.2 million (K966.26 million) the previous year, due to lower prices for palm oil in 2009, particularly in the first half of the year as against the figure in 2008.

Earnings per share of ordinary shareholders were US$0.418, down from the US$0.518   declared in 2008.

Dividends paid during the year in review totaled US$0.28 per share including an interim dividend for 2009 of US$0.14 per share.

 

Petromin leader in minerals devt: PM

PETROMIN (PNG) Holdings Ltd is emerging as a leader in developing its mineral tenements through green field exploration, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said today, The National reports.

In an address to the Petromin board of directors, Sir Michael said he was pleased to learn that Petromin board and management had allocated about K6 million this year to explore the company”s mineral tenements within the vicinity of the Tolukuma gold mine in Central province, and regional  tenements.

“For a newly-established company, Petromin has done extremely well and can be seen as a leader in developing its tenements … than most of the junior mining companies that have been in the business for a much longer period.”

Sir Michael said Petromin’s determined approach in upgrading the total resource potential of Tolukuma mine through an extensive exploration programme was proving successful for the company.

“This exercise is paying off as the total resource has been upgraded by an independent Australianbased company to about 700,000oz.

“This has the potential to extend the mine life to about five years.”

Sir Michael spoke particularly on Petromin’s investment strategy.

“I am pleased to note that the board and management have put in place an investment strategy which provides the pathway for a planned process of investment.

“I am advised that the strategy was based on the State’s back-in-right as well as other investment opportunities that Petromin in its own right as an industry participant can invest in,” he said