Agency wants youths in farms

THE Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) is looking at providing incentives to attract educated young people into the horticulture industry, FPDA general manager Mark Worinu says.
Worinu told The National that the food and horticulture industry needed to be driven by educated people who had graduated from tertiary institutions.
He said those graduates would be able to understand the economics the industry.
“Currently, we have farmers, most of whom are just village people, involve in the fresh produce industry,” he said.
“On the other end, our people see farming as a way of subsistence living.
“This is an issue which people need to change their mindset and take interest in farming.
“It needs to be seen as a business like real estate, building and constriction trade store or any other and it’s an industry with market value into the millions of kina every year,.”
He said that to get educated people to take interest and venture into the industry, incentives would be provided which was a new programme FPDA was driving.
“We will provide training to fresh graduates from agriculture colleges and other tertiary institution in the country, provide them the tools and other things they need for farming, including some initial funding as seed capital,” Worinu said.
“We need to provide incentives and tell the people that fresh produce or horticulture is a very lucrative business.”
He said the current value of the industry in the country is around K2.5 billion and was bigger than the other sectors. “That is a very massive market which our people should participate and the money should go into their pockets and create wealth for the country,” Worinu.
“But most of these money have gone overseas for imports and is creating wealth and employment for other people because our people are not taking this industry as a business.”