Agriculture’s focus still on local market

 PAPUA New Guinea’s leading market for agricultural produce is on the domestic front, especially in fresh fruit and vegetables, an agriculture expert says.

Dr Michael Bourke, who has spent many years working with rural farmers in the country, and whose book Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea is regarded as the Bible of PNG agriculture, said that yesterday.

He said this was more so now with major agriculture exports such as coffee and cocoa being stagnant.

He said things had not changed much since the 1990s when rural villagers’ cash income came from fresh food, betel nuts and betel pepper, firewood, fish and shellfish, Irish potatoes and tobacco.

“Agriculture is the most important source of income for virtually most rural people, 80 per cent of the population,” Bourke said.

“Half of the income that people get from agriculture comes from the formal sector and half from the informal sector. “What we’ve seen over the last 20-25 years is a shift towards the informal sector and that’s not being recognised. “That’s huge progress. That’s the broad picture ion the agriculture economy.

“Oil palm is going ahead but a lot of the other export crops are stagnant.

“Coffee production is stagnant, cocoa has gone backwards with that insect (cocoa pod borer), so it’s the domestic economy that’s doing well.”

Bourke said bottlenecks must be identified and addressed.

“I was in a (Port Moresby) supermarket yesterday and the quality of the food is really poor if it’s Papua New Guinea-grown, but coming from Australia, it’s good quality,” he said.

“If you go to Goroka, you go to Ukarumpa in Eastern Highlands, you go to Hagen, that’s beautiful quality.

“The broccoli and carrots are beautiful, better than they used to be, and I lived in the Highlands 30-40 years ago.

“So the quality is there but you’re not seeing it in the markets in Moresby.

“There potential is there but there’s a long way to go. You’ve got to address the bottlenecks. What are the bottlenecks? To give the example of potatoes: virus-free planting material.

“If you can address that bottleneck, and address it properly, up to 80 per cent of your problems can disappear.”