Manus islanders take to farming

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI

Community members clearing land to plant sweet potato and cassava on M’Buke Island

Growing food crops is a difficult task on islands and atolls and the M’Buke Island in the Manus Province is no exception.
Efforts are being made to encourage M’Buke Islanders to grow their own food, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd (PNGSDP) and the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI).
Under a two-year food security project, NARI is introducing improved crop and livestock varieties in an effort to encourage the islanders to grow their food.
NARI-released technologies to be transferred under this project include: African yam, NARI taro, drought-tolerant and high-yield cassava varieties, corn, lowland land early maturing sweet potato varieties, Muscovy ducks and other vegetables.
Located on the south east of Manus Province, M’Buke Island has a population of about 700 people and food shortage is a common problem.
The islanders, who depend on marine resources for their livelihood, will now be able to grow their own food with planting materials and training on crop and livestock production, and on simple processing techniques provided by NARI.
This food security project funded by PNGSDP is aimed at alleviating the current food shortages and malnutrition problems by improving crop and livestock production on a sustainable basis.
To kick-start the project on the island, a baseline survey was undertaken last June and planting materials of the improved varieties are being supplied to the island from the NARI Southern regional centre based at Laloki.
The project, which is being implemented in partnership with the Manus Investment Peoples Association and the provincial Department of Agriculture, has created interest among the islanders to grow their own food.
A resource centre would be established from where planting materials and other information would be distributed from.
It is hoped that the outcomes of this project will also benefit other communities on the neighboring islands and mainland Manus as well.
NARI is carrying two other similar projects funded by PNGSDP in the Rabaraba district of Milne Bay and Morehead in Western province.

Jiwaka kaukau show on tomorrow in Minj

By JOSEPHINE YAGI of NARI

Youths watch attentively as Sr Louisa of the Catholic Church conducts food processing training at Don Bosco in Minj last year

Sweet potato (kaukau) accounts for 63% of the dietary energy of the population and is becoming the mainstay of the country's food security.
Current production is more than three million tonnes per annum.
The biggest challenge facing the village communities in Papua New Guinea is knowledge on possible products from sweet potato that can be developed for the retail market.
Traditional technologies are no longer capable of producing products that are better quality for the retail markets.
To address some of these issues, a kaukau fair will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at the Anglimp South Wagi district administration office in Minj, Western Highlands.
The fair is funded under the Australian Centre for Integrated Agricultural Research (ACIAR) post-harvest and marketing project and is the first of its kind that will be facilitated by key stakeholders including Lilly Be’soer group (RWDI), Sr Louisa’s groups, Jiwaka interim administration, National Agriculture Research Institute NARI) and Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA).
Participating groups and individuals are expected from in and around the Jiwaka region.
“Kaukau fair is one of the projects of the technical component projects of ACIAR sweet potato post-harvest management and marketing, which is the main initiator of the projects,” said NARI post-harvest project leader Anton Mais.
“The fair focuses on the idea of identifying possible sweet potato products to link with training to be held in March.
“It offers a variety of ideas and information on various sweet potato processing practices and attendees will gain valuable information for their well being.
“The expected output of the project is to identify and develop sweet potato products to exhibit during the fair and conducting evaluation to assess the potential link to the training.”
Activities apart from speeches include food exhibitions by groups and individuals, judging of food entries by judges, taste panel of kaukau products, evaluation of major products and award presentations of the best products.
‘The kaukau fair concept is new in PNG and it plays a central role in the value chain, as it reinforces and develops the fundamental linkage between agriculture and the industry or market access improvement, thus creating a more favorable environment for spin-off business development,” Mais said.
“As such, we would like to utilise the concept of kaukau fair as a helpful event to get the women and vendors thinking about processing sweet potato products."
The kaukau fair starts at 10am tomorrow with an open invitation to everyone and and around Jiwaka to attend.

Bank of Papua New Guinea backs bid to review super funds

THE Bank of Papua New Guinea is supporting the proposal by Nambawan Super Ltd (NSL) to review the Superannuation General Act 2000, the umbrella legislation covering the operations of all super funds in Papua New Guinea , The National reports. 

According to NSL managing director Leon Buskens, a task force was established to review the SGPA legislation introduced by the Mekere government more than 10 years ago.

“Nambawan Super is in the forefront of lobbying to enact key changes to the act to improve operational arrangements aiming to achieve more benefits for members, especially in light of the economic boom expected from the LNG project,” Buskens said in a statement yesterday.

He said the Bank of PNG had indicated its support for the proposal to set up a task force committee to review the act.

 “Nambawan Super’s board and management are in regular contact with the industry regulator (Bank of PNG) as well as the government and other industry participants. 

“Last year, we wrote to the regulator proposing a comprehensive review of the Superannuation Act. 

“We are pleased to report that the bank has been receptive to this and will present the proposal to the minister for finance and treasury,” Buskens said.

Nambawan Super had proposed changes on its services to include contribution rates, life and medical insurance, payments on compassionate ground, family super, housing withdrawals, extending the super net and RSA limited increase.

It had proposed increasing compulsory contribution rates by 2%, which would move the current employee portion of 6% to 8% and the employer portion from 8.4% to 10.4%.

NSL also proposed to fund members’ life insurance premiums from its profits by election by each member and with extra contributions by them and would recommend to consider the position if compulsory contribution rates were increased.

It also advocated amending the legislation to allow the trustee to be able to make payments to a member on compassionate grounds, such as where the member’s immediate family is critically ill and life can be prolonged with medical treatment.

It was also in favour of introducing a new product to allow fund members to have sub-accounts for their family members. These accounts would be set up on voluntary contributions.

“A culture of savings in our society will also be promoted here,” Buskens said.

“For housing withdrawals, NSL considers putting in place a formula that allows the member to use part of his or her employer contributions for this important purpose.

“In extending the super net, NSL has proposed lower contribution rate for companies employing 15 people to contribute to superannuation which provides a scope for the self-employed to contribute to superannuation.

“NSL recommended consideration of K500,000 as the revised maximum that could be held in the RSA product as it believes that as member balances continue to increase, it makes sense for RSA maximum to increase as well,” he said.

It was not clear if the National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) was aware of the proposal and had come up with similar recommendations to BPNG.

 

Southern Highlands teachers make their stand

By STAFF REPORTERS 

 

TEACHERS in the Southern Highlands yesterday reportedly stormed the education office located inside Agiru centre in Mendi and closed it , The National reports. 

A teacher at the scene told The National that teachers contributed money to buy a new padlock and chain and locked the office and chained it around 11am.

The teachers, who are supposed to return to their respective schools next week to prepare for classes, were angry at failure by provincial and national education authorities to respond to their demands for hardship allowances, a general pay increase and housing allowance.

The teachers gave a 14-day notice to provincial government, Education Department and national government to respond or they would walk off their jobs.

Southern Highlands adviser Joel Raitano, who was in Lae yesterday to assess teacher incentives, refuted earlier report that about 4,000 teachers had threatened to resign en masse over poor working conditions.

He said an inquiry team was investigating teacher incentives and the cause for education standards and systems.

A large number of teachers, however, decided yesterday that they would not fill their resumption of duty forms as directed by acting education secretary Dr Joseph Pagelio until their demands were met.

John Kuimp, one of the teachers on the working committee assisting the PNG Teacher’s Association (PNGTA) branch in the province, told The National from Mendi that the teachers had decided not to take up their posting until all their demands were meet by the provincial and national governments.

Kuimb said the teachers decided to stay out of class until their demands were met, adding that all schools in the province would remain close for indefinite period.

PNGTA national president Tommy Hecko has thrown his support behind the teachers and called on Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru to listen to the teachers’ pleas.

Hecko yesterday said teachers were feeling the effects of the LNG development in the province and that the K300-K400 base salary for teachers  there was insufficient to sustain their daily needs.

 “I appeal to Agiru to sit down and negotiate with the teachers. Do not ignore their calls, at least hear them out,” he said. 

Kuimb said the teachers wanted an additional K400 in mining allowances to be paid by the provincial government on top of their normal salaries.

They have been demanding   a mining allowance since Kutubu oil was first exported some 17 years ago. Successive provincial governments promised to pay them but that has never materialised.

He said with the big multi-billion kina gas project coming on stream, the teachers wanted their long overdue allowances to be paid, adding that their K6 housing allowances was “a joke” and should be increased to K100.

Hecko said primary and elementary schools would be hit the hardest with less than a week of school holidays remaining.

In Lae, Raitano said no specific teacher incentives for the liquefied natural gas project impacted areas were set in place.

The idea of incentives for impacted areas was discussed but is yet to be determined between all the levels of government (council, district, provincial and national government) and teachers.

Raitano did say however, that the incentives would begin this year and that teachers in most disadvantaged schools would benefit.

What these benefits are and when they might be implemented, he would not reveal.

 

 

21 die in flu and malaria outbreak

By VERONICA FRANCIS   

 

TWENTY-one people have died so far in the recent flu and malaria outbreak in the Salt-Nomane and Karimui area in Chimbu , The National reports. 

It is understood that of the 20, two are children under the age of five from Karimui, 17 are from Bomai and two from the Negabo area.

Karimui-Nomane MP Posi Menai told The National yesterday that 17 health workers from other parts of the province had been deployed to Karimui last week to help contain the outbreak.

He confirmed that a funding of K110,000 had been released for medical supplies and all costs for the health workers.

Menai said Bomai had recorded more deaths because the area was geographically isolated and the health facilities there were rundown, and health workers could not make it on time to contain the outbreak.

“As the member responsible and because of the remoteness of the area I will do my best to keep health workers on the ground and use all available resources to contain the outbreak,” Menai said.

He said at the moment the health workers were doing well, adding they had been given another week to stay in the affected areas.

Menai has made a personal commitment to monitor the situation and make sure everything goes back to normal.

 

 

Australian injured in car-jacking

AN Australian aid adviser in Papua New Guinea has been seriously injured in a violent car-jacking in Port Moresby, The National reports.

A spokesperson for the Australian High Commission confirmed the victim, a man in his 50s, worked for Australia’s aid programme.

“An Australian man had his car stolen in a car-jacking on Thursday evening in Port Moresby,” the spokesman said.

“He sustained serious injuries during the assault.”

The man was discharged from a Port Moresby hospital on Friday and flew to Brisbane for further treatment.

The spokesman would not disclose any more details for privacy reasons but said PNG police were investigating.

AAP also understands that at the weekend another Australian official was involved in an unsuccessful car-jacking by a gang of youths.

The attacks occurred in the same time frame as a fierce tribal fight in Port Moresby that left five men dead with scores more admitted to hospital with knife wounds.

The fight erupted at a popular market on Thursday afternoon but retaliation attacks continued until Sunday.

Chief Superintendent Joseph Tondop called for calm in the wake of the “animalistic and barbaric” clashes that included a beheading and several dismembered bodies.

“Port Moresby is a modern city and I can’t understand why people resort to such barbaric acts,” Tondop said.

“It is very dangerous for such ethnic violence to erupt in Port Moresby.

The clash involved two Highlands ethnic groups, the Taris and the Engans, who have a fierce reputation for such clashes in their home regions that often spill over into the capital hundreds of kilometres away.

The Economist magazine regularly ranks Port Moresby as one of the five worst cities in the world to live in because of violent crime, corruption and the absence of basic infrastructure.

In November last year a young group of Australian volunteers travelling in Madang, on PNG’s northeast coast, were car-jacked, tied up and robbed, with one woman raped. – AAP 

 

Expatriate man believed killed, pregant wife raped

Belgian hubby missing since Jan 27

 

By ZACHERY PER

 

A BELGIAN man is missing, believed murdered, in the remote Nondri area of Gumine, Chimbu, after he and his wife were abducted by a gang of men two weeks ago, The National reports.

The pregnant wife was allegedly raped repeatedly for two days before she was rescued by tribesmen in the area, Chimbu police have reported.

Seven people, including a couple, have been arrested and charged in relation with the incident and yesterday appeared for mention in the Kundiawa District Court.

The National visited Gumine over the weekend and was told by locals that they strongly believed that expatriate Tony Boddin of Belgium had been murdered and buried in the thick jungle of the Bomai area.

Head teacher of Nondri Primary School Michael Sipa told The National  in Gumine in an exclusive interview: “It was reported that one of the gunmen put the gun to his (Boddin’s) neck and fired, killing him instantly.

“We believe that he has been killed.

“Some villagers saw bloodstains on the trousers of some of them when they brought the wife out so it is strongly believed that they must have killed him,” Sipa said.

According to Sipa, the attackers abducted the couple on Jan 12 and tied Boddin to a post inside a house before taking his pregnant wife to a nearby bush where she was raped repeatedly.

The attackers later took the husband into the bush where they could have killed and hid his body.

The wife was rescued by the head teacher and members of other sub-clans Toma and Barama of the Sa tribe.

She was reportedly treated at the Nondiri Health Centre before being taken to Gumine station.

She stayed with Sipa’s family near Gumine station and left for Jiwaka to be with her family before The National arrived in the area.

The woman told Sipa’s family that the next day, the men came to her armed with crowbars, spades and weapons so it was believed that they must have killed the husband.

Chimbu provincial police commander Chief Insp John Kale said police deployed to the area picked up five suspects, including a woman.

He said the thick jungle in the area had complicated their investigations, however, he would send more policemen into Nondri this week.

Boddin was an elderly retired member of the British defence force who later became a volunteer and came to PNG and was working in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville for some time before he went to the highlands.

Sipa said they knew that Boddin went with the Catholic church missionaries to Goroka before going to Chimbu and onto the Jiwaka region where he met his wife who has Manus and Jiwaka parents.

“The expatriate came and stayed with us at Nondri for four months. He remained in Nondri during the Christmas and New Year period,” Sipa said.

The expatriate went to Jiwaka and returned with his wife to Nondri and stayed with the people of the Gorekulame clan of the Sa tribe.

“He (Boddin) promised to help the people write proposals for development projects for the remote Nondri-Amia area,” Sipa said.

Dirima community leader James Wai condemned the action of a minority group of people, saying the people wanted changes and developments.

He said such incidents would scare off people and developments.

Particulars of the other suspects arrested would be made available soon after the completion of police files. The suspects had been remanded at the Kundiawa police cells.

Kale yesterday confirmed that a couple was among those arrested.

No motive for the abduction, rape and possible murder had been established.