Agriculture is the backbone of the country

OUR forefathers worked the land for their living for thousands of years.
The people who first inhabited the island of New Guinea developed methods to till and irrigate the soil and to live off the land while people in other parts of the world were still hunting and gathering.
Agriculture was indeed the backbone of the country and today people should be reminded of that.
It makes sense that one of the leading industries in a developing economy such as PNG’s should be agriculture.
This week, local farmers of vegetable, fish and cash crops – including vanilla, cocoa and coffee – were presented an opportunity to showcase their products to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation officials during the senior officials’ meeting in Port Moresby.
We must invest in our land to generate an income from market produce and cash crops. Agriculture is what people are all about.
With the mining sector booming over the past quarter century along with the existence of oil and hydrocarbons, many have lost sight of what the land can produce, choosing instead to focus on what can be extracted from its depths.
Our readings tell us that at independence the country had among its chief exports coffee, copra, cocoa and tea. Those cash crops were some of the ways the people created their own revenue.
The fishing industry is another revenue stream, but in terms of having the most involvement by the people – agriculture, and its related industries, are the obvious foundations on which this country’s economy should be based.
Other agricultural products have since increased their presence and importance. Sugar and oil palm are now two of the country’s major industries.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s the growth and production of vanilla beans became a lucrative enterprise after the world’s leading producer, Madagascar, had most of its crops wiped out by disease and bad weather.
That opportunity saw many growers in PNG bank in on the high prices.
The Highlands provinces and Morobe are seen as the potential food bowl of the country. Those provinces have been producing large amounts of garden produce for the domestic market for years. Much of the sweet potatoes consumed in the country’s main cities and towns originate from the Highlands.
Agriculture has taken a backseat to the rise of the mining industry and the extraction of other valuable resources.
The government is now trying to support local agriculture because this is the only industry that can directly benefit the rural communities.
While gold and copper can be taken and a royalty paid to the State and the landowners, the reality is that very few benefit from that.
Through agriculture, the people literally hold their own destinies in their hands.