Addressing farmers’ struggles

National

By BRADLEY MARIORI
TEWAE-Siassi cattle farmers’ struggles with transporting their cattle to Lae in Morobe and other centres will be addressed after the completion of a cattle buying point in the district.
Local MP Dr Kobby Bomareo said the buying point was funded by Livestock Development Corporation (LDC) with a vehicle and K200,000 from the district as seed capital for the project.
“At the buying point, we will buy all the cattle from the farmers and then we’ll sell it again to industries in Lae such as Trukai and Ramu agri industries,” he said.
“We are trying to reduce the burden of farmers trying to bring their cattle over to Lae.
“They (farmers) sometimes walk all the way from Sialum to Lae and the freight cost of shipping cattle to Lae is high and we are trying to help.
“We will buy cattle from the farmers, keep them at the buying point and then move them to Lae or Port Moresby depending on where the buyers are.
“They (buyers) will meet all the costs involved in transporting the cattle.”
Meanwhile, Dr Bomareo said all major roads in the district had been given priority and they had reached the target of three roads.
He said the three roads were Wasu-Ipang, Wasu-Wabek and the Sialum-Wasu.
“The last village bordering Madang have been connected by road,” he said.
“The Siassi road went on but was slow because of funding and maybe in two weeks’ time, money will be released and we’ll continue from Lablab to Bunsil ending at Mareremu.”
Dr Bomareo said it was a five-year road-work plan funded by the Marape-Basil government through the Connect PNG programme.
“We’ll soon launch the Masaweng to Sialum maintenance road,” he said.
“We’ve put in some money and the contractor has started work.”