Agriculture can boost country’s economy, says Simon

THE agriculture sector can contribute and further boost the country’s economy in two major means, Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon says.
In his visit to Erap Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) station in Huon Gulf, Morobe, on Friday, Simon said the sector had the potential to increase foreign exchange (forex) into the country through increasing export in commodities and the import replacement.
He said import replacement could be boosted through livestock development, food security and other agricultural commodities that could be produced locally instead of importing from other countries. “When we develop all these areas in our system, we will see that we don’t send forex out rather we save a lot in that,” he said.
“Currently, we are sending a lot of forex out because we are relying on importing these things.”
Simon said the Government was emphasising cutting down of imports and many of those are from the agriculture sector.
He said the sector aimed to reach a 30 per cent reduction on imported items by 2022.
Simon said agriculture would be a main drivers of the national economy and less reliance on importation would boost the local agricultural sector.
“That is why Erap station is now being upgraded to be one of the main station and a few years from now it will be one of the institutions of the sector that supports import replacement,” he said.
Simon said Erap would be a central place for agriculture programmes and developments where stakeholders and Government would work together.