K120m grants to landowner firms in 10 trust accounts this week: Kapris
THE long-awaited business development grants (BDG) for the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project areas will be deposited into the recipients’ respective trust accounts this week, The National reports.
Ten trust accounts have already been opened based on the petroleum development licence (PDL) areas and a total of K120 million BDG, or seed capital, will be apportioned and paid directly into the trust accounts according to breakdown as per licenced-based benefits sharing agreements.
Commerce and Industry Minister Gabriel Kapris announced yesterday the K120 million was solely for landowner companies from the 10 PDL areas to help them use it as seed capital to participate in the early construction phase until the full-scale construction stage of the LNG project
“These funds are seed capital,” Kapris told reporters at a press conference.
“Seed capital means for landowner companies to grow and venture into multi-corporate companies.
“It must be made clear the seed capital funds are not for the landowners to offset their debts accumulated in Port Moresby from hires cars, hotel bills and other bills.
“They can do so with other memorandum of agreement funds but with BDG, it is solely for them to meaningfully participate in the construction phase of the project,” Kapris stressed.
“My department wants to see the K120 million grow and I would expect to see landowners coming back to me with smiles on their faces and appreciate me for the strictly guiding them for the use of the BDG and not to hear some landowners started some companies but deregistered or declared bankrupt.
“I want to see landowners from remote Juha, Gobe and Kikori businessmen prosper through the K120 million seed capital.” Kapris said.
Department decretary Aton Kulit said the K120 million seed capital was a one-off payment and it would be wise for the respective nominated landowner umbrella companies to use the funds wisely and make good returns out of it to survive in the competitive business environment.
He said not all landowners would be paid their BDG.
There are outstanding in-house issues within some landowner companies which have to be resolved before funds could be released.
“Only those landowner companies that have completed their process without any hassle would see their funds paid into their trust account monitored by my department,” Kulit said.
WEST New Britain police have hunted down a crocodile which killed a pregnant woman last week, The National reports.
They are also hunting for a wild boar which killed a 14-year-old boy.
West New Britain police commander Chief Insp Richard Mulou said yesterday that the two unrelated tragedies were reported last Friday.
The crocodile attack happened at Garmate village.
The 23-year-old mother-to-be was bathing in the TulupRiver at about 7.30pm when she was attacked and taken.
Her seven-year-old cousin who saw the attack alerted the villagers.
Mulou said that the police search party the same evening found and killed the killer crocodile.
He said that the remains of the victims and her unborn foetus was extracted from the crocodile’s stomach and buried by the villagers.
Mulou has instructed his Gloucester rural police station commander to hunt and kill other crocodiles in the area which may pose a threat to villagers.
In the wild pig attack, the 14-year-old was killed during a hunting expedition at Kilenge village, also last Friday.
Mulou said the boy was among hunters who were chasing a pig towards one of the traps they had set up when it turned around and attacked him.
Two other men in the hunting party, who came to the victim’s assistance, were also seriously injured while trying to save the boy.
Mulou said the boy died at the scene of the attack from the grievous wounds sustained while the two men are recovering at the Kilenge Catholic Health Centre.
He warned people living on the coastline of the province to be wary of crocodiles and wild pigs when going about their daily activities.
THE growing violence among high school students in Papua New Guinea continues unabated – the latest victim Morobe’s SalamauaSecondary School, The National reports.
Provincial authorities have suspended classes indefinitely after most of the 800 students fled following a fight involving cult members at the weekend.
Salamaua is the latest education institution in the past week to be hit by cult and ethnic violence and destruction of school properties – the others being Mainohana Catholic High in Central and another Catholic-run school Fr Peter Secondary (Fatima) in the Western Highlands.
The Education Department has not officially commented so far on these three incidents.
In the latest violence, according to reports reaching Lae, two male students, allegedly members of a school cult group, were seriously injured and were admitted to Salamaua health centre after the fight on Monday.
Most of the students fled in fear of their lives; some took refuge in the bushes while others returned to Lae yesterday.
Salamaua local level government manager Joe Paru said the fight started on Sunday night and escalated the next day, forcing authorities to close the school.
According to reports, tension had been building among the different students’ groups for the past two weeks following a confrontation between two Markham students and members of a cult group at the school known as the “panel beating squad”.
The squad members demanded money from the male student before beating him up for breaking the cult law of walking with a female companion and refusing to pay a “fine” for this “offence”.
His fellow Markham and Wampar students, fed up with the questionable activities of the cult, retaliated on Sunday evening by bashing up the squad members, injuring two students, believed to be from Sepik, in the process.
Paru said yesterday the panel beating squad was a threat at the school which even teachers feared but could little to stamp out.
It is led by Grade 10 students and made up mostly of students from the notorious miles area outside Lae.
The squad forces other students to take part in their alcohol drinking and marijuana revelries; those who refuse are usually beaten up.
“Many problems at the school are instigated by these hoodlums,” Paru said.
Rain and rough weather prevented Lae police from travelling into Salamaua by banana boat on Monday and again yesterday.
MT Hagen police are working hard to prevent a full blown ethnic clash between the Jiwaka and Western Highlands people, The National reports.
Police are patrolling the streets in the city and bus stops where passengers bound for the Jiwaka region wait for public transport.
They are making sure people from the Jiwaka region coming into the city are not harassed by students from Western Highlands who have fled from Fr Peter (Fatima) Secondary School on Monday after a clash with the Jiwaka students.
The Minj, Banz and Kunjip bus stop was empty yesterday and only a few people were seen waiting to catch PMVs home.
Many PMV operators from Jiwaka are reportedly operating from their area to Chimbu and are refraining from coming into Mt Hagen.
The PMV operators are scared after students from Western Highlands, who ran away from Fatima secondary, had mobilised their people and tried to attack PMV operators at the bus stop and any Jiwaka people in Mt Hagen on Monday.
Highlands police divisional commander and Assistant Police Commissioner Simon Kauba said yesterday that the student unrest at Fatima only involved students from Hagen Central, Dei and Jiwaka.
Kauba said that the problem almost spread to other schools in the province but quick actions by the police and local communities prevented the problem from going out of hand.
He said the warring students had set a bad precedent and appealed to the concerned education authorities to quickly intervene and resolve the problem in Fatima.
Kauba said that it was important the school administration and education advisers carry out immediate investigation into the matter and resolve the problem once and for all.
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare, in an unprecedented move, invoked parliamentary Standing Order 140 to challenge Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat to name the three ministers whom he alleged had put a price on his head, The National reports.
Marat, who looked lost, was saved by Speaker Jeffrey Nape who told him not to answer the question.
Somare tried to raise the question again during question time but was refused by Speaker, who ruled that a minister cannot ask a question.
Somare then stood up after question time to say the integrity of Parliament had been brought into question by such allegations.
“The allegations have been backed by opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta through the media without any evidence.
“Section 140 of the parliamentary standing orders stated that questions may be put to a member, relating to any bill, motion or other public matter connected with the business of Parliament of which the member has charged.
“The allegation of a plot to kill Marat is a question of integrity, that the integrity of parliament is being question,” Somare said.
“Husat tru dispela tripela minister?
“Sapos yu go long niuspepa long tok long memba blong gavaman askim ol man long kilim yu? (Who are these three ministers? You had gone to the media of members in government asking criminals to kill you.)
Somare asked Marat to name the ministers and if he could also produce evidence for the relevant authorities to investigate.
Nape, after seeking advice from the clerk of Parliament, refused the Rabaul MP to answer the question.
“I will not allow the member to answer the question. I will ask the Rabaul MP to come to my office to discuss this issue,” he said.
Nape said he would then make a statement to Parliament.
Imbonggu MP Francis Awesa, who was also trying to raise a point of order, was ruled out.
Day old broiler chicks being checked before put through research at NARI Labu A demonstration on poultry feed formulation using locally available feed resources
By JANET PANDI of NARI
The commercial livestock sector in Papua New Guinea is dominated by broiler chicken production due to a high demand for chicken meat.
Papua New Guinea presently has three distinct poultry markets - commercial frozen poultry market, informal live poultry market and the commercial table eggs market.
The commercial frozen chicken market is largely based on smallholder contract growers selling chickens back to parent companies for processing and marketing.
Broiler meat production from this industry is estimated to be about 20,000 tonnes per year.
The commercial poultry industry in PNG is self-sufficient due to government policy on import bans and high tariffs on poultry products.
Independent of this frozen chicken market is the village poultry sector, which includes smallholder broiler chicken raising, Muscovy ducks and village chickens.
This sector provides a source of income, improved nutrition and services to meet socio-cultural obligations of farmers in rural villages and peri-urban areas of the country.
There are about 55,000 smallholder farmers who produce broilers for the informal live chicken markets.
These farmers operate independently from the vertically-integrated commercial frozen chicken industry and produce approximately six million birds per year.
The cash from this enterprise is the major source of income for these farmers.
This sector alone has an annual estimated value of AUS$6.7 million and rising.
Broiler day-old chicks are moved to remote communities by road, plane or boat, sometimes supported by government and NGOs.
Prices of commercially-produced feed and day-old-chicks increase the further one goes away from the mills and the hatchery due to freight charges.
The smallholder broiler industry uses high-performance hybrid chicken strains, supplied by two commercial poultry companies: Niugini Tablebirds and Highland Products (Zenag).
They both supply the Ross 308 strain of hybrid chicken from New Zealand.
Three separately-developed commercial feeds produced by Niugini Tablebirds, the Goodman Felders Ltd (Flame) and the Trukai Industries (Trukai) are freely marketed through retail shops at different prices.
Profitability of raising broilers is primarily constrained by input costs, and feeds remain the most-important cost item of broiler production as it accounts for up to 70% of the total broiler-growing costs.
Most ingredients used in these commercial broiler feeds are imported and retail prices of these feeds are quite expensive for the average smallholder farmer.
Economic viability of poultry production is more dependent on the price of imported grains than it is on growth rates.
Research at NARI is currently targeted at utilising locally-available resources to reduce the proportion of imported ingredients so as to reduce feed costs.
Modern day husbandry practices are based on use of cereal-based feeds and profitability is dependent on access to cost-effective diets.
A project titled ‘Poultry feeding systems in PNG’ evaluated locally-available resources as potential poultry feed.
It involved the direct participation of public and private sector operators as well as NGOs to evaluate options for their inclusion in poultry rations.
The aim was to increase/maintain profitability of smallholder poultry producers in PNG through the provision of information that will enable farmers/commercial millers to use lower-cost rations using these materials.
The project also established a feed testing facility at NARI’s livestock research centre in Lae to conduct feed evaluations and the institute now has the capacity to do nutritive profiles of feed materials.
The establishment of this facility is essential for the long-term viability of smallholder production sector through the development of lower cost rations.
There are opportunities to improve profitability by using local feed materials in rations for finishing broilers.
Using these materials may lengthen the grow-out period by 5-10 days, but increase the profit margin.
Farmers have limited knowledge and information on how to formulate balanced rations using these materials.
Some of these local feed materials are traditional staple crops, agro-industrial by-products, grains, legumes and high protein sources such as fish meal, meat and bone meal.
Such local materials tested by NARI included maize, wheat, sorghum, sweet potato, sago, cassava, banana and legume leaves, various industry by-products, such as millrun, rice bran, palm kernel meal, copra meal, fish meal and pyrethrum marc.
Several of these tested materials (copra meal, pyrethrum marc, and traditional staples such as cassava, sago and sweet potato) had high feeding values and were considered to be used as concentrates.
On station experiments using these concentrates for finishing broiler chickens showed promising results and a concentrate was formulated mainly with copra meal and fish meal which was further tested by an on-farm evaluation.
This on-farm experiment assessed how well chickens grew on a diet comprising this poultry concentrate with cooked sweet potato against a commercial diet.
From these results, a concentrate feed was formulated for use with local energy sources for finishing off broiler chickens.
Three feeding strategies are available for poultry farmers to adopt and optimise profit.
These options include the utilisation of local feed ingredients in complete ration formulation, mixing with concentrate diets or by diluting commercial diets with local ingredients.
In conclusion, the smallholder broiler sector is thriving due to increasing demand for chicken meat in PNG and the ever-increasing retail prices of commercial broiler feeds poses a constant challenge.
Farmers are now exploring ways of combating this issue by looking at alternative ways of reducing input costs involved in raising broiler chickens
Goats taken into Naoro village in Kokoda by NARI early this month Naoro villagers welcome NARI officers for a agriculture training early this month By DENSLEY TAPAT of NARI
Villagers at Naoro along the famous Kokoda Trail (Track) have received much-needed training on improving their agricultural farming practices, thanks to the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). This included provision of foundation materials of food crops (seeds) and breeding flock of poultry and goats. The assistance was provided under the Sustainable Rural Livelihood Improvement Project of the Kokoda Track Authority (KTA), supported by AusAID. Under the Kokoda Initiative, a joint understanding was signed in 2008 between the Papua New Guinea and Australian Governments on the Kokoda Trail and Owen Stanley Range. Both governments made a commitment to identify potential economic benefit streams and improve livelihood projects for landowners, including tourism-related income generation activities. The Sustainable Rural Livelihood Improvement Project was intended to support micro-business opportunities in two pilot villagers - Naoro One and Two - along the Kokoda Trail. As a result, a total of 50 farmers received training on selected agriculture and livestock activities. The Naoro villagers had hands-on training on farming of food crops such as vegetables, rice, maize (corn) and mung bean, and livestock such as chicken, duck and goat using locally-available resources. The training at two Naoro villages in the central province was provided by the NARI crops team from the Southern Regional Centre, Laloki; and rice and grain and livestock teams from the Momase Regional Centre, Lae. The training went for three days with class presentations, discussions, practical demonstrations and information-sharing on improved farming systems of vegetables, rice, maize, mung bean, and poultry and goat keeping. The trainees were identified and organised by three previous business awareness and planning workshops held at Naoro villages by Kokoda Livelihood project partners (NARI, KTA and Ginigoada Foundation). They were divided into three groups and guided through the three days of separate training sessions. Poultry and goat keeping training was led by Densley Tapat, Simon Sangi and Jerry Bakui, NARI’s livestock officers. Training on rice, maize and mung bean cultivation was led by Dr Peter Gendua with assistance from Rex Kawage while John Demerua and Paul Osilis provided training on vegetables and fruit cultivation. Besides, NARI supplied nuclear livestock breeding flocks of 10 goats and 23 poultry with vegetable and fruit seeds and 10kg of rice seeds, 2kg of open-pollinated corn and 2kg of large-seeded mung beans. The team also donated a wooden rice mill (Kisser). The specialised training showed how farmers can make effective use of improved crop and livestock farming systems to enhance their livelihoods.
