IT seems odd that the present Government, one that has repeatedly emphasised the importance of the agricultural sector, should offer such limited support to extension services for certain divisions of that sector.
We applaud the joint initiative of the Coffee Industry Corporation and Mainland Holdings Ltd that has resulted in a partnership to deliver extension services and training to coffee farmers within the Mainland network of growers in the Morobe and Oro provinces.
But it seems paradoxical that coffee extension services should continue to attract such limited Government support.
The national farmer training and extension manager for the CIC said last week that the lack of funding combined with a 50% reduction of staff had left the extension initiative stranded.
Fabian Api pointed out that funding was slashed in half by the government of the day in 1997.
Twelve million kina had previously been supplied to the CIC for the purpose but in 1997 this was reduced to K6 million with the CIC bearing the brunt of supplying an additional K6 million.
Given the inroads of inflation in that decade, today’s real position of CIC extension funding is even more depressed. At the same time the organisation lost some 400 staff through retrenchment and that deficiency in staff numbers remains today.
Mr Api said that there should be one extension officer for each district – we might add that even that figure seems too low. Today’s reality is reportedly one officer for 20,000 people, an impossible statistic to establish and maintain the wide range of extension services needed by the industry.
We understand that an acceptable international level of staffing would see one extension officer for every 300 growers.
Coffee has been neglected for far too long.
It is a proven crop and PNG growers have shown their ability to produce a top of the market product.
Yet in the mad rush to access and exploit non-renewable resources such as gas, oil and minerals, agriculture and particularly coffee have been largely ignored. The announcement of the Somare Government’s green revolution was warmly welcomed as it promised to redress that imbalance, but positive results appear to have been far fewer than anticipated.
Mr Api said that extension and training in 13 provinces was in the hands of 13 officers.
Assuming those figures to be correct, we cannot but help wonder why the Government has been so backward in filling the funding and manpower gap.
There are examples of these black holes in other sectors; for example, the tiny number of trained psychiatric staff available to provide mental health services throughout the country, or the equally limited eye and dental specialists.
The 13 provinces alluded to by Mr Api that cover both the highlands and lowlands coffee growing provinces are home to an estimated two million growers.
It is vital that extension activities should resume at full strength if PNG is to regain and surpass its role as a producer of quality coffee.
Widely recognised coffee industry icon Ricky Mitio, who currently heads the CIC, was also present at the partnership signing; he believes that PNG has the potential to export two million bags of coffee worth some K1 billion in export receipts.
But Mr Mitio made the point that unless the Government honoured its promise of releasing K6 million to the sector to underpin extension services, such a target could not be met.
It’s worth noting that PNG exported some 1.2 million bags in 1996, but on average over the past few years, only about 800,000 bags.
We urge the Government to release those funds to the industry through the CIC and help restore coffee to its pre-eminent agricultural export position.
At the same time, manpower must be sharply boosted to meet the requirements of the growers.
As Mr Mitio said, “we have the technical know-how, but we lack the manpower” to bring extension goals within reach.
The National Agriculture Development Programme (NADP) addressed those shortfalls, but the funding promised under that plan has yet to appear.
We would imagine that this and any other responsible government would welcome the possibility of boosting national export income by a potential one billion kina.