| Business |
Boosting livestock production
TODAY we note an initiative that
deserves the encouragement of us all.
We refer to an attempt to revive industries that once showed
strong signs of becoming major contributors to rural incomes.
The Livestock Development Corporation is revisiting some of the
initiatives previously undertaken to develop livestock
industries throughout Papua New Guinea.
Prime among these are cattle, sheep and pigs, but the concept
also includes stocking rivers with fish and encouraging the
establishment of bee-keeping.
There is ample land available for the development of cattle
properties on our country’s vast plains.
In particular previous efforts succeeded in the Markham Valley
and in parts of the highlands.
Those driving the revival attempt have already purchased 200
heads of cattle from the Markham and will use them to re-stock
the 500ha Zuguru Ranch in the Eastern Highlands province.
Former cattle properties stretched as far as the Western
Highlands, with significant herds at Banz and Baiyer River.
Other cattle farms could be found In the Eastern Highlands at
Bena Bena and near Goroka.
Livestock production should rank high on the Government’s list
of agricultural projects.
It is counter productive in terms of freight costs and lost
employment to import substantial quantities of beef from
overseas when we could provide at least a significant proportion
of our needs from our own country.
Manufacturers such as James Barnes Ltd that makes the Globe
range of canned meat and chicken products and the major
multi-national Heinz, trading as Hugo Canning, provide the bulk
of the canned corned meat bought in PNG. Their meat is sourced
overseas but they would prefer to obtain a reliable source of
local meat for their products.
Then there is the question of nutrition.
The spread of lamb flaps through PNG is a disgrace and should
have been stopped by previous administrations.
Instead the fat shrouded off-cuts that would never find a place
on the retail shelves of New Zealand or Australia have become
almost the only “fresh meat” bought by our people.
We have substituted the healthy lean meat of our own small wild
animals with this nightmare of gristle and fat – and the way
we’re going, lamb flaps will join rice, also mainly imported at
huge cost, in becoming the staple foods of our country in the
near future.
We offer a passing comment, one that we have written about
before.
The herds of Rusa deer roaming the plains of the Western
province could provide another opportunity for the LDC; venison,
the meat from deer is amongst the leanest available.
Taking some of that huge wild herd and developing them into a
healthy and acceptable meat product could well provide the
much-needed alternative to the highly unhealthy lamb flaps.
Freshwater fish and the development of apiaries are two further
small scale projects that have been tried successfully before.
Honey is fast becoming a lucrative product on the world market.
Once honey was simply a product of bees; the flavour varied as a
result of the wide range of different flowers visited by the
bees.
But today’s increasingly sophisticated markets demand variety.
Honey now comes in a wide range of flavours calculated to please
virtually any taste.
We’ve succeeded in developing some of the world’s more exotic
coffee combinations, with the local quality product blended with
a variety of other flavours; there seems no reason why honey
production should not follow in the same direction.
We also recall the development of small herds of goats.
These tough animals produce high quality milk and are among the
least difficult to maintain.
One final aspect of redeveloping livestock that will need to be
looked at is the provision of veterinary services.
Herds of cattle and both sheep and pigs require veterinary
attention if the standard of the end product is to be acceptable
in the market place. We only have to look overseas to see how
rapidly long-established cattle and other livestock industries
can be destroyed by diseases.
The LDC has the potential to not only meet the demands of the
people of PNG, but could well follow in the footsteps of other
PNG industries and begin to successfully export meat, fish and
other products to our Pacific neighbours and beyond.
 
|
