A successful year in agriculture for NARI

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI

As 2011 approaches its end and 2012 lies only days away, we are proud that National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) continues to make very good progress in accomplishing its strategic objective and impacting positively on the lives of our people.

Basic food processing training conducted by NARI for women in the Huon district in partnership with Bris Kanda, a local NGO

This was echoed by NARI director general, Dr Raghunath Ghodake, in his Christmas message to staff, partners and stakeholders, acknowledging that this would not have been possible without their tireless efforts.

Among these achievements was the launching of the NARI-EU Agricultural Research for Development project on generation and adaptation of agricultural technologies to mitigate climate change imposed risks to food security in smallholder farming communities in western pacific countries of Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and PNG.

Participants from Solomon Islands at the popular communications workshop held recently under the capacity building project of NAI-EU Science and Technology Programme

 This mega project is in addition to the three projects for capacity building which are being implemented by the Institute under the EU ACP Science and Technology Programme.

These projects will benefit agricultural research and development organisations in the Western Pacific Countries. 

VIPs led by NARI director general, Dr Raghunath Ghodake and Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge, making their way to officiate the Agricultural Innovations Show staged at Bubia, outside Lae in May

Dr Ghodake noted that many areas of these projects had been successfully implemented during 2011.   In May, NARI celebrated its 14^th anniversary, coinciding with the staging of the 5^th Agricultural Innovations Show. 

NARI director general, Dr Raghunath Ghodake and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to PNG, Dr Martin Dihm with shell money presented by Solomon Island representatives at the lauching of the EU ARD project at the Holiday Inn early this year

 During this event, the institute officially released three improved technologies to the farming community.

These included two blight-resistant potato varieties, two cool-tolerant rice varieties for the highlands and the broiler feeding system developed using locally-available resources, bringing the number of NARI-released technologies to 27.

Anton Mais (right) of NARI explaining to visitors to the agriculture innovation show on the use of a simple cooling system being promoted by NARI

Dr Ghodake also noted the institute’s continued achievements in many excellent outcomes such as quality publications, staging of and participating in important public events, working with local organisations and rural communities on technology transfer-related activities, increased participation in post-graduate training, direct funding from AusAID, and wider acclaim from stakeholders and civic society for information dissemination through the print  and electronic media, field days, public shows, training sessions and demonstrations. 

It was noted that during year, NARI staff participated in a wide range of workshops, conferences, training programmes and technical consultations both locally and internationally.

 They also produced an array of conference or workshop papers, corporate documents, technical bulletins and scientific journal publications.

NARI has made good progress on the refocused institute planning and alignment of the organisational structure and management systems so as to contribute effectively to improving the outputs and farm level outcomes and impacts. 

The institute has developed its Strategy and Results Framework (a corporate document), a key milestone and the basis for further focusing and planning at the programme and projects levels.

“We will continue to develop further the Institute and build on relevant capacities to create a congenial environment for AR4D and to further improve in service delivery efforts for our primary clients, the smallholder farmers of PNG, while at the same time continue to deliver on currently implemented projects and on‐going activities”, Dr Ghodake added.

“We are pleased with the confirmation in March by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts of our prudence in financial management and accountability.

“We will continue to undertake the institute’s financial management within the established financial guidelines and procedures.

“ NARI will continue to be pro-active in providing good corporate governance from our very able council and equally good leadership at the executive management level”.

Dr Ghodake expressed that these achievements could not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of the PNG Government,  AusAID, EU, stakeholders, donors and NARI staff from all programmes and at all levels, stating the institute highly appreciated and treasured their commitments and contributions.

While wishing all staff, partners and stakeholders an enjoyable festive season on behalf of the NARI council and management, he called for their continued and proactive contributions in 2012 and the years to come for the benefit of the farming community who depend partly or wholly on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Sanguma founder Tony Subam dies

Well know musician and founder of Sanguma, Soru (Tony) Subam, died on Christmas Day after a short illness.
Widely considered to be a founder of Papua New Guinea's contemporary music scene,  Subam co-formed Sanguma in 1977, melding the PNG cultural traditions with western instrumentation. Headlining the South Pacific Arts Festival, they were the first PNG band to tour internationally.
Subam has been an inspiration to a whole generation of PNG musicians.

Police commissioner court case deferred to January 2012

The court case between Fred Yakasa and Tom Kulunga over who is the right police commissioner has been deferred to January 12, 2012, NBC reports.

This was because of an amendment ti the originating summons by Yakasa's lawyer, David Dotaona.

The Last Confession

Last night, till the early hours of this morning, I read MORRIS WEST'S final novel before his death, THE LAST CONFESSION, which is about GIORDANO BRUNO, Dominican monk and rationalist philosopher, who was burnt at the stake in Rome's Campo dei Flori on Feb 17, 1600. 

Bruno's beliefs and writings were considered heretical by the Catholic Church. 

Investigated and tortured by the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and incarcerated for seven years in Rome's worst prison, Bruno was given the opportunity to recant but chose instead to die for his beliefs.

Improved rural advisory services vital

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI

SMALLHOLDER agriculture and family farming is the core contributor to agricultural production in most developing countries, including Papua New Guinea, contributing to achieving food and nutritional security. 

A resource centre established by NARI in the Rabaraba area of Milne Bay province in partnership with PNG Sustainable Development and the National Disaster Centre. This centre is being used to multiply and distribute improved crop and livestock varieties in the area under a food security project. Such models can be tested further in our efforts to improve rural advisory and extension services in PNG – Picture by JAMES ERNEST

To help these smallholders improve their farming practices; a coalition of public, private and civil society actors at national, regional and international levels is needed to revitalise and strengthen agricultural extension and advisory systems.

 This was the challenge put forward by more than 400 participants who attended the international extension conference on Innovations in extension and advisory services: Linking knowledge to policy and action for food and livelihoods.

The conference.  held in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 15-18,  2011, was aimed at taking stock of current policies, thinking and practice, successes and failures of ongoing and past reforms in extension and advisory services and develop a coalition to address the needs of smallholder farmers, in particular women and youth, in a sustainable and cost effective manner. The conference covered four cross-cutting themes of Policy, Capacity Development, Tools and Approaches and Learning Networks.

Farmers, extension professionals, policy-makers, researchers, academics, representatives of the private sector and the media from over 70 countries participated at this event.

The Pacific region was well represented with representatives from a number of key organisations to voice the concerns of Pacific Island countries and territories.

Rural advisory services  are increasingly recognised by many rural development actors as an essential vehicle to ensure that research, development of farmer organisations, improved inputs, and other elements of rural development support actually meet farmers’ and other rural actors’ needs and demands.

Despite past advances in agricultural innovations through improved crops and farming systems, much of the developing world still faces challenges in food and nutrition security, non-sustainable agricultural practices, poor access to markets, and a falling contribution of agriculture to national GDP.

Rural farming communities have not really benefited from advances in agricultural technology. The diminishing national extension and advisory services reflect reduced government investment in agriculture.

 Now, the global community, responding to this situation, is revisiting extension and advisory services as the critical link in the agriculture value chain, where smallholder farmers are key actors of agriculture.

Director of CTA, Michael Hailu in his opening remarks said that the conference theme, Linking knowledge to policy and action for food and livelihoods, was very relevant and provided a new perspective to extension and advisory services.

He said 75% of the poor in developing countries lived in rural areas and the majority of them depended on agriculture for their livelihoods.

He pointed to smallholder farmers as the primary group producing food, yet over 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa face food security issues.

Any effort to fight poverty must start with agriculture.

Hailu pointed out that the event was no ordinary conference, where experts came to talk to each other and everyone else politely listening. 

He challenged participants to take the opportunity provided to create a coalition of different interest committed to improving the welfare and productivity of the world’s smallholder farmers.  Extension and advisory services, he explained, had a key role to play in confronting the many challenges farmers face, from climate change to low productivity and rising food prices.

He expressed the hope that the conference would identify practices and policies to improve the delivery and effectiveness of extension and advisory services.

Hailu advocated increasing government funding to agriculture, his call supported by many other speakers.

We have and will continue to make this call in PNG.

We believe the state has a duty to its smallholder farmers and should invest in agriculture, which supports the livelihood of over 80% of our population.

Ensuring food and nutritional security for a growing population is a challenge.

The world population estimated to reach to 9 billion by 2050 and with additional challenges posed by climate change and scare resources such as land, water and energy will require not only technical innovations but policy action and investment.

The diminished role of extension and advisory services is a hindrance to future agricultural and rural development and hence there is an urgent need for redesigning and revitalising their role in reshaping the global food system.

There is also need for coordination of development actors to articulate and advocate for investments in agricultural extension and advisory services and to ensure that they remain priorities on the national, regional and global development agenda.

In PNG, responsible agencies should act on Ted Sitapai’s recommendation to formulate a new agriculture extension policy, which promotes pluralism, market-oriented, and participatory and methods that are appropriate for empowering farmers and increasing their social capital, particularly amongst women farmers in PNG.

Currently our extension system is fragmented, making it difficult for managing and resourcing the extension services.

The meeting noted the need to enhance the use of information and communication technologies, both old and new, and engage the media in expanding the reach and impact of extension and advisory services.

Strengthening extension advisory services will directly boost value-chain pathways.

The international conference provided a unique forum for world experts to share experiences, success stories and challenges and recommend future measures and policy reforms that will make extension and advisory services more relevant and responsive to the needs of millions of smallholder farmers so that they are better equipped to feed a growing world population.

We hope some of these recommendations will be acted upon in PNG for the benefit of our smallholder farmers.

Father and child reunion at Adelaide graduation

By MALUM NALU

There couldn’t have been a prouder Papua New Guinean father on Friday, Dec 2, 2011, than Wamel Kiage.

Rebecca Kiage hugs dad Wamel after graduation with her surrogate parents, well-known former Lutheran Missionaries Len and Claire Tscharke

Kiage, 64, of Masul village in Sinasina, Chimbu 

province, was in Adelaide, South Australia, for the graduation of his daughter, Rebecca.

Rebecca graduated from the University College London (UCL) – School of Energy & Resources in Adelaide for the award of a Master of Science – Energy & Resources, Policy & Practices on that day.

“I was a recipient of the Santos Scholarship which enabled me to partake in this study experience,” she tells me.

“There are 10 Santos scholarship awarded globally annually and I am a proud recipient of such scholarship. 

Father and daughter...Wamel and Rebecca Kiage enjoying Adelaide, South Australia

“UCL is ranked as one of the top 10 universities in the world.

“This is also the second time for dad to be overseas to witness my graduation as he was with me in Melbourne for three months in 2006, and witnessed my graduation at Monash University, where I was conferred the award Masters of Public Policy & Management.”

Rebecca, who was born in Lae on Aug 12, 1978, did her primary schooling at East Taraka PNG Bible Church, Lae International Primary School and Omili Primary School; Grades 7-10 at Lae High School; and Grades 11-12 at Bugandi Secondary School before going on to the University of Technology, where she graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Business Economics in 2000.

She was employed by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock as a policy officer until her resignation in January 2010 when she was awarded the Santos Scholarship.

Kiage arrived for the his daughter’s graduation at Adelaide airport after staying overnight in Brisbane and was picked by Ken Tscharke, son of pioneer Lutheran missionaries Claire and Len Tscharke, good parents of his and guardians of his daughter, and rushed straight to the graduation ceremony which started at 9am.

“All the while,” Rebecca admits, “I did not think he was going to make it but ‘God is good all the time' and the good Lord made sure all was possible.

“I had tears in my eyes when I saw him ushered to his seat.

“It was a day of celebration and I was happy both families - the Tscharkes and him - were present.

“Dad is a person who truly believes in education and how it can make a difference.

“That is why he is so vocal for education, not only for us his immediate children but to all our extended family members and the community in East Taraka, Lae.

“Dad and mum always go out of their way to be the surrogate parents for most drop outs and ensure they are placed back to the formal education system.

“Their house in East Taraka, Lae, is always a full house with kids from all provinces and all walks of life.

“Dad is also a popular figure with all the teachers at Gantom primary school, Taraka Primary School and Bumayong Lutheran High school and the Lutheran academics at Unitech and is respected by them.”

Kiage, who was so happy to meet up again with the Tscharkes, was a very proud man.

“I was so proud because I always rate education very highly,” he said.

“She (Rebecca) was the dux at Bugandi Secondary School (before going on to University of Technology, and then joining DAL after graduation).

“I can see that all my prayers are being answered.”

Kiage did Grades 4-6 at Asaroka in Eastern Highlands where he first met the Tscharkes, founders of the famous Asaroka Lutheran High School, before returning to Kundiawa, and then doing his secondary schooling at Goroka High School.

After that, he joined the then Department of Primary Industry before becoming a veteran Highlands Highway truck driver, clocking up 36 years under his belt.

“I worked with DPI for two years,” Kiage remembers.

“I worked at Kerowagi in Chimbu and Magarima in Southern Highlands.

“I then resigned and took up a job as a Highlands Highway truck driver for 36 years.

“I was with Pagini, Farmset, Cartrans, Hagen Hauliers and many others.

“I have four children and nine grandchildren.”

He urges all parents to bring up their children in a God-fearing Christian environment in which education is a high priority.