Agriculture contributes 0.6pc to GDP growth

The agriculture sector has contributed, an average, 0.6 per cent to real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.4 per cent each year according to a recent research by ANZ bank.
This is 0.4 per cent more than the contribution from the mining and quarrying sector, it stated.
“The oil and gas sector has contributed more, 2 per cent a year, but this average figure is skewed by LNG production from 2014,” ANZ said.
“If we exclude the LNG effect, when output lifted by 287.5 per cent and 93.3 per cent in 2014 and 2015 respectively, the oil and gas sectors’ positive addition to GDP growth falls to 0.1 per cent.”
It said agriculture had been PNG’s star performer for years, but it did not get the limelight.
“As a result, funding support for training, productivity enhancement and infrastructure has suffered,” ANZ said.
“We believe this sector should be given the same attention as mining because it provides PNG with the best opportunity for development of small and medium enterprises, which in turn will broaden the base of the economy’s growth drivers.
“The sector’s output can be a key input in the supply chain – particularly food and beverage manufacturing.
“The availability of high quality, competitive domestic agricultural inputs will also improve the competitiveness of food and beverage manufacturing.”
Apart from providing direct gross value added (GVA) and employment benefits along with downstream processing and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) opportunities, the agriculture sector will continue to be a stable source of foreign currency.