Massive boost for PNG coffee industry

From MALUM NALU in Goroka

 

 Papua New Guinea coffee farmers are set to benefit from a massive US$46.3 million project which was launched today in Goroka today(Tuesday, April 12).

 Funded by the World Bank, government of PNG, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and sources within the private sector, the 'Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project' (PPAP) aims to improve the livelihoods of rural communities by assisting coffee farmers.

 Hundreds of smallholder coffee growers from Western Highlands, the new Jiwaka, Chimbu and Eastern Highlands provinces packed the Mark Solon Auditorium at the University of Goroka for the launching.

 Many, however, were disappointed when they found out that this was not going to be free money for them, as the project will be professionally-managed on World Bank principles with jobs to be contracted out.

 The crowd and speakers became emotional at times as they shouted down the government's controversial National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) and "paper farmers" of Waigani, whom they said had been stealing their money for far too long, with the new project being a real blessing for the industry.

 "NADP is for the rich, fat and computer people," Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) board chairman James Korarome, also chairman of Eastern Highlands' smallgrowers',  told a cheering crowd.

 "The 'paper farmers' are thieves.

 "The NADP funds have all been stolen.

 "I believe this PPAP is for the small growers in the village."

 The animated crowd also heard presentations from CIC chief executive officer Navi Anis, Department of Agriculture and Livestock acting deputy secretary George Mosusu, various World Bank and IFAD representatives, exporters' chairman John Edwards, processors' chairman Jerry Kapka, plantation representative Max Kumbamong, Western Highlands' smallgrowers' chairman Peter Kewa and Jiwaka smallgrowers' chairman James Koimo.

 Yesterday's coffee launching was preceeded by the cocoa segment in Kokopo and Buka last week.

 Breakdown of funds was not announced in either Kokopo, Buka or Goroka, however, it is understood that bulk of the money will be pumped into coffee.

 "The World Bank has seen the need of the coffee industry in this country," Korarome said.

The PPAP will focus on areas dependent on coffee such as Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Chimbu and the new Jiwaka provinces,  with possible expansion to other areas subject to review.

 The coffee segment aims to undertake a number of measures to support smallholder coffee farmers including: strengthening links between smallholder farmers and agricultural businesses; increasing access to farming technologies and services; improving coordination of agricultural institutions; providing critical infrastructure for market access; and enabling the introduction of efficient and sustainable farming techniques which will lead to increased smallholder income.

 The six-year PPAP project will be implemented by DAL; CIC; and Cocoa Board.

 Total project costs are estimated at US$46.3 million.

 These costs will be met through the International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$25 million, an IFAD loan of approximately US$14 million, additional financing from the government of PNG (US$1.5 million), and contributions from the private sector (including smallholder farmers) of US$5.8 million.

 The project, which was approved by the World Bank's Board in April, 2010, is a product of extensive consultations with community representatives, local level government, grower associations and co-operatives, youth and women's groups, extension workers, the private sector, and other key stakeholders.

Government plans not ‘sacrosanct'

By MALUM NALU

Government plans such as Vision 2050 and PNG Development Strategic Plan (DSP) 2010-2030 should not be considered “sacrosanct”, Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker said at the weekend.He was replying to a full-page advertisement in The National last Friday by National Planning and Monitoring Minister, Paul Tiensten, extolling the virtues of DSP and hitting back at critics of its highly-ambitious agricultural projections for 2030.
Barker voiced concern at a very personal attack by Tiensten on Coconut Cocoa Institute chief executive officer, Dr Eric Omuru, who has described the projections for copra and cocoa as a “joke”.
“If these are meant to be national plans, not just government plans, it is critical that there is wide public participation and endorsement,” Barker said.
“Medium and longer term plans are valuable tools if suitable resources are provided to enable their implementation, but it requires that the targets and forecasts are realistic and well-researched.
“ PNG has had many plans and strategies, but, as with the medium term development strategy (MTDS) 2005-2010, inadequate funding was provided to enable effective implementation, for example only K30 million for national road maintenance for the whole country, although access was the top priority in the MTDS.
“Unfortunately, also, the MTDS evaluation was not made publicly available and discussed to contribute to the development of future plans.
“It has been emphasised that the quality and implementation of plans is dependent partly upon both sound prior consultation with the respective stakeholders and their feeling ownership of the process, which they will be responsible for implementing.
“Unfortunately, it was widely perceived that the preparation of the DSP was undertaken discreetly by a small team in a central agency, with inadequate feedback from respective line agencies and non-government stakeholders. “
Barker said everyone would like to cooperate to achieve major economic development and particularly to ensure broad-based opportunities from this development, including through positive improvements in agricultural production, but to achieve that required a full understanding of the opportunities and constraints and the context of the industries.
“It is essential, therefore, to embrace the inputs of the industry professional s, including both public and private sector participants, who will have a better understanding of what is achievable, and who will, after all, be responsible for subsequent implementation,” he said.
“This embracing and respect for each others’ contribution - how government can assist the industry and vice versa - and recognition of considerable past experience provides the best opportunity for progress, rather than criticising the CCI director’s comments at a workshop.
“His comments were not isolated, but have been consistently expressed by sector professionals, if nervously, over the past year, since the DSP forecasts have been revealed.
“Discarding past experience and referring only to modelling is unhelpful, as models remain only as good as the inputs into them.
“Consultation, mutual respect and cooperation is a better way for all players to refine plans and move forward than mutual criticism, and will best serve the interests of the farmers and the wider community.”

False agriculture commodity statistics

By MALUM NALU
National Planning and Monitoring Minister Paul Tiensten seems to have ignored feedback from agriculture professionals in favor of “false statistics” from his department and Department of Agriculture and Livestock, according to Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker.
Barker said this at the weekend after a full-page advertisement by Tiensten in The National last Friday defending DNPM from criticisms leveled at it by cocoa, copra, palm oil and coffee experts in this newspaper last week.
Cocoa, copra, palm oil and coffee experts last week rubbished huge increases projected for 2030 by Tiensten’s PNG Development Strategic Plan (PNGDSP 2010-2030), saying they had not been consulted before making such projections, which were impossible with government attitude towards agriculture.
Staff from the two departments have since been pointing fingers at other over who was responsible for the figures, which will also be part of the much-vaunted Vision 2050, while the farmers continue to work their land oblivious to all the fuss going on.
Tiensten hit back with the advertisement, and a strong personal attack on PNG Coconut Cocoa Institute chief executive officer Dr Eric Omuru, who had described the projections as a “joke” at a workshop the week before.
“False statistics are useless for everyone,” Barker said.
“It is disappointing that the planning minister should choose to criticise the feedback being provided by professionals with respect to the 20-year strategic plan (DSP), and notably the agricultural forecasts.
“Constructive feedback should be encouraged, recognised and appreciated, not condemned.”
Barker said with respect to the agricultural targets, it had long been pointed out that these were unrealistic, with eight-fold increases in coffee production, six-fold in cocoa, and others having little link with reality or past experience.
“When asked where these figures were sourced, planning department staff stated they obtained them from the agriculture department,” he said.
“Agriculture department staff stated they didn’t provide these figures, whilst the respective commodity institutions and other agricultural industry bodies stated firmly that the figures were unrealistic and that they’d not been consulted.
“Regardless of the source of these figures, and who’s right and who’s wrong, it was urged that the respect public and non-government bodies should get together promptly to ensure that realistic figures are prepared promptly and mutually accepted, so that there can be targets which everyone co-operates to achieve.
“It must be remembered that agriculture is undertaken by farmers making their own investment decisions, based upon their own perception of returns to their land and effort.
“Care must be taken by authorities to understand the needs of these farmer, their potential and constraints which need to be addressed.
“Many of these constraints relate to poor public infrastructure such as roads and ports, and services, whilst others relate to natural factors, such as local land availability and suitability, as well as to options for the farmers, or opportunity costs, such as whether they prefer to grow vegetables instead of coffee).
“If the bulk of the industry professionals say the figures are unrealistic, for various reasons, and need to be revised, these observations should be heeded and recognised and not dismissed out of hand.
“Maybe industry players are being too conservative and should be encouraged to see greater potential, but in all likelihood their views are based upon long and practical realities.”
Barker said in the 1960s and 70s the world saw great application of top-down “long-term plans”, largely emanating from remote bureaucrats in the capitals of the old Soviet-style “command economies”.
“In some cases, the targets were totally unrealistic, with requirements, for example, to double rice production in a few years,” he said.
“Officials didn’t dare challenge the targets given, for fear of losing their jobs or worse, so in many cases the result was extensive falsification of statistics.
“ It wasn’t even possible sometimes for the plants or animals, let alone the farmers and the infrastructure, to achieve the increased production levels required, but officials and departments/provinces would nevertheless announce that the targets had been achieved or even better.”

Tiensten hits back at agriculture experts

By MALUM NALU
National Planning and Monitoring Minister Paul Tiensten has defended his department’s highly-ambitious agricultural projections for 2030 and hit back at experts who had criticised it as being unrealistic.
Experts from cocoa, copra, palm oil and coffee described the projections in The National last week as unrealistic and said they had not been consulted before the projections were made in Tiensten’s PNG development strategic plan (DSP) 2010-2030.
The minister was particularly harsh on Cocoa and coconut Institute chief executive officer, Dr Eric Omuru, who had described the projections as a “joke”.
“The CEO’s criticism was based on shallow administrative points and not on practical economic and scientific reasoning as he may have been trained and paid to do,” Tiensten said in a full-page advertisement in The National last Friday.
“He argued that the CCI and others were not closely consulted during PNGDSP formulation process and that the set targets were unrealistic, given the current constraints the agriculture sector currently has.
“The criticism lacked intellectual substance but only devised to derail the government’s efforts to break from past ‘business as usual’ practice to map out a new strategic plan for PNG’s advancement into a middle-income country by 2030.
Tiensten said his department, in consultation with Department of Agriculture and Livestock had in 2008 and 2009 provided cocoa, palm oil, coffee and copra projections.
“We did consult and gather the intelligence from the core agency responsible for agriculture in PNG (DAL),” he said.
“Most importantly, these are targets, not ‘business as usual’ projections based on one sector strategy.”
“They are based on a whole range of measures in the PNGDSP that will substantially boost the productive capacity, including:

• Investment in major infrastructure development aimed at tripling the road network in rural areas and the extension of electricity to most of the rural population;

• Implementation of the land development programme which will end the current lease-lease back system;

• Initiatives to increase extension services, including research and development to achieve a 60% productivity growth; and

• Undertaking a major drive to boost literacy and technical education of the rural population.”

Tiensten added: “What has happened in the past does not point to the future.
“The PNGDSP makes a break from ‘business as usual’ to map out a new path of real development for PNG.
“The PNGDSP deliberately sets out ambitious, yet achievable targets.
“Without ambition, there can be no hope to achieve progress.”

Coffee expert accuses agriculture planners of living in ‘fantasy’ land

By MALUM NALU

A coffee industry expert has accused architects of the controversial National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) of living in “fantasy” with their unrealistic projections for the industry.
Well-known coffee personality, David Rumbarumba, has joined cocoa, copra and palm oil in rubbishing unrealistic projections contained in the “realigned” NADP, which were provided to the Department of National Planning and Monitoring’s (DNPM) national development strategic plan 2030 (DSP 2030).
The NADP expects coffee to reach 500,000 metric tonnes in 2030 from 73, 868mt this year – a massive 700% increase.
This projection will also be part of the much-vaunted Vision 2050.
“Five hundred metric tonnes is 8, 333, 333 bags of green bean (exportable coffee),” said Rumbarumba, who is general manager of Awute Coffee Producers.
“This is more than 700% increase from current average of 73, 868mt (1, 231,133 bags).
“Correct current average volume is around 54,000mt, or 900, 000 bags – not even a million bags!
“Basing on this target, 500,000mt will be more than 900% achieved in 19 years!
“Wow!
“This target is ridiculously ambiguous and an unrealistic dream, or shall I say ‘fantasy’, by the government and its agents.
“Where does the DNPM and DAL get their data from?
“I can gurantee that such a volumetric target will not be achieved in 19 years or even 100 years, and I can certainly bet my life on that.”
Rumbarumba said only once in coffee’s 60-year history, in 1998 after the 1997 drought, did coffee achieve its biggest-ever production of 1.23 million bags, and it had since slumped
He said coffee was competing with other subsistence crops for land space, due to population growth, and there was no gurantee that there would be more plantings.Rumbarumba said compounded by all the problems, the government had not even invested in coffee over the years, even leaving stakeholders to fund research and extension industry levy.
“A reasonable target for coffee in the next 20 years would be to double the volume from current 54,000mt (900,000 bags) to 110,00mt, or a target of two million bags,” he said.
“This was the industry’s target in its two five-year strategic plans 10 years ago, but it was not achieved, because the government failed to support the plan with funding of its programmes.
“We in the coffee industry believe two million bags can be achievable with right and consistent financial and policy support from the national government.”
Rumbarumba called on government to:

• Directly fund the Coffee Industry Corporation with K30-K40 million a year to reactivate research and extension programmes, industry regulations, farmer training and marketing programmes, coffee nursery developments, and coffee rehabilitation;

• Create a government ministry for commodities, separate from agriculture and livestock; and

• Create a commodities bank with open and soft lending policie

Department of Agriculture and Livestock turns ‘logger’

By MALUM NALU
Department of Agriculture and Livestock has turned forester, venturing into the forests of Papua New Guinea with forest clearance authority (FCA) projects, saying that it is part of “wealth creation under Vision 2050”.
These cover “oil palm” and “cocoa” projects, among others, however, skeptical landowners and people of Papua New Guinea now see it as a front for logging.
According to a department FCA update, obtained by media, “one of its responsibilities is to provide leadership in overseeing coordination, assessment and approval of integrated agriculture agro-forestry projects (defined as Forest Clearance Authority) of the government”.
“The FCA agro-forestry projects are essential interventions that support the medium-term objectives of the National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) as these projects have profound impact on the PNG economy and bring in immediate benefit to the resource owners in the rural communities,” it said.
“The production targets across all agricultural commodities set by the National Development Strategic Plan (NDSP) 2010-2030 can only be realised by increasing rehabilitation of existing croplands and new development of virgin land.
“The integrated agro-forestry projects provide an appropriate strategic intervention as poverty and economic corridor projects with ‘far-reaching’ contribution towards achieving these outcomes and targets.
“However, it is also imperative for increased awareness as planning based on environmental sustainability, climate adaption and compatible development come to fore.”
The update says to date, 32 projects have been registered and 17 have received DAL approval.
“Fourteen of these approved projects have been issued FCA by PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) and have progressed with initial project development activities,” it says.
“Sixteen projects are in the process of being assessed and listed as pending projects.
“By land use, there are 20 oil palm projects, seven have been approved and have commenced development.
“There are eight cocoa projects, seven have commenced development.”

Abal promises feedback on business summit proposals

ACTING Prime Minister Sam Abal has assured the newly-formed PNG Indigenous Business Council that within three months, the national government will put forward its position on recommendations from the indigenous business summit in Kokopo, The National reports.
Summit patron Sir Rabbie Namaliu presented the joint communiqué, called the Kokopo Declaration, to Abal yesterday at the Vunapope Hall where hundreds of national business people cheered and clapped in unison.
The Kokopo summit also ended yesterday.
The acting prime minister, when accepting the Kokopo Declaration containing 10 recommendations, said the creation of a national business council was the greatest thing ever done in PNG.
Abal said he had initially considered to take a year to work on the recommendations but, with the elections just around the corner, it would take about three months as a practical quest to make them part of legislation and form structural policies.
“This government will make it work and take up the issue of national partnership and go as far as we can until the elections,” the Wabag MP said.
“We will not be complacent about it, we will walk the talk.”
However, Abal stressed this should now not be taken as an anti-foreigners’ lobby campaign.
He said national business people had made a stand to move forward and must cut out regionalism in conducting businesses as this could lead to disaster.
The 10 points in the Kokopo Declaration were:

*Creation of a ministry for indigenous business sector;

*Creation of a PNG Indigenous Business Council;

*Establish a foreign investment and review board;

*Provision of seed capital and tax incentives;

*Capacity building and entrepreneur training;

*Creation of an indigenous land mobilisation authority;

*Establish a national context monitoring authority;

*Determination of national equity;

*Control on major basket of commodities; and

*Work permits and visas.

Also in attendance yesterday were governors Luther Wenge of Morobe and Western Highlands’ Tom Olga, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Talasea MP Francis Marus, Internal Security Minister Bob Dadae, Attorney-General Sir Arnold Amet and government chief secretary Margaret Elias.