Agiru urges people to work the land

By PETER ESOP WARI
LANDOWNERS who own oil heads in Hela will get royalties and benefit directly from it but others must put their hands into the soil to be part of the development, Governor Anderson Agiru says.
Agiru challenged thousands of Hela people last Thursday during the first Hela provincial assembly meeting in Tari to get involved in agriculture as the liquefied natural gas spin-off would attract thousands of people and agricultural products would be in demand.
He said not everyone would benefit directly from the LNG project and those who worked in the gardens “will have something at the end of the day”.
“I would like to encourage Hela people, especially those who are unemployed and have lived a subsistence way of life, to toil the soil and you will get something out of it,” he said.
Agiru said he was willing to support agriculture and his first step was to revive all abandoned agriculture stations in the province.
One of the abandoned DPI stations is Piwa, located in the Tepi LLG,  in Tari-Pori district. This was the first one he was looking at reviving.
 He said Hela had the potential to become a major player in commercial agriculture although Western Highlands was at the top of that list.
He said there was immense potential for agricultural products such as kaukau, cabbage, corn and more would be needed to feed the workforce in the LNG
project.
“The LNG project is bringing advantages and disadvantages.
“Money will make people go crazy and HIV/AIDS is another issue people must take heed of,” he said.
He urged the people to work side by side and cooperate to move the province forward.
Agiru said Hela was the hub of the LNG project, which had been hampered by recent blockades by landowner groups and other people living along the Highlands Highway. He urged the people to respect the project.