Agriculture production in PNG declining: Association

AGRICULTURAL production in the country has been declining in recent years, according to the Farmers and Settlers Association Inc.
Association president Wilson Thompson, while acknowledging the Government’s support for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and the K50 million price support programme for farmers, said it should change the implementation mechanisms of the various interventions to stimulate the sector and the economy.
He said the Government’s intervention was good but implementation was weak.
Thompson said the Government continued to allocate annual funding to the provincial governments through the provincial services improvement programme, district services improvement programme and functional services grants.
“Various level of funding under the public investment programme and recurrent were made to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Department of Commerce and Industry, the commodity boards and the National Development Bank,” he said.
“In a year, close to K1 billion is parked with agricultural agencies.
“This excludes other investment in supporting infrastructure.
“With almost a billion put into agriculture and SMEs every year, and the Word Bank-funded productive partnership in agriculture project from 2010 to 2020, the agriculture commodity crops production and exports has been dismal.”
He urged the Government to seriously look into the matter.