Farming role to be debated

National

Next month’s agriculture summit will be an avenue to address the role of agriculture in PNG’s development, National Agriculture Research Institute director-general Dr Sergie Bang says.
Bang told departmental heads that the government was focusing on renewable resources and the agriculture summit would be a perfect avenue to discuss this.
He told colleagues that the summit to be held in Lae was an opportunity for them to attend.
“I want to thank the government that they have finally recognised the renewable sector agriculture and we stand ready to support our secretary Dr Vele Ila’ava.
The framework and five-year development and commercialisation of the agriculture sector must align with the government’s medium-term development plan three.
“It’s important that the department drive this overall framework. We cannot let such important sector transformation into economy be hijacked,” Bang said.
This overall five-year plan and all government departments’ statutory bodies must be framed in the overall plan so we all know our roles and what we are to deliver with a strong monitoring and evaluation plan to measure.”