East Sepik targeting Philippines for proposed rice project

East Sepik is eyeing the Philippines market for its proposed rice project, according to Governor Allan Bird.
Bird said the province would require about K24 billion for land preparation for rice.
The province has 4.4 million hectares of land mass of which about 2.2 million ha can be allocated for agriculture and urban development.
Bird said in a statement: “If we allocate one million hectares of land for rice, the cost of developing this land for rice production will be around K24, 000/hectare – based on 2011 estimates on work I did with a Bangladeshi group in my village.
“So K24 billion is the magic number for land preparation for rice.
“This excludes roads, canals, irrigation, wharf expansion, townships, international airport, schools, hospitals, etc.
“We need around K30 billion over five to seven years to do this kind of transformational work in East Sepik.
“In short, we need a soft loan to build the infrastructure while the Philippine private sector funds the actual rice planting and the infrastructure to support rice exports.
“That is the proposal in a nutshell. Philippines rice production is declining.
“So we have a window of opportunity.
“We (East Sepik government) did fly the Philippines experts to East Sepik and they visited the plains and they are excited about the prospect.
“We have agreed to do some large-scale pilots.”
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, during his State visit to Philippines last week, discussed expanding opportunities for bilateral engagement in agriculture.
Following his meeting with the president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and with technical experts in rice production, O’Neill said: “One of the most-important elements in this visit will be to discuss opportunities for technical support from the Philippines to grow rice in Papua New Guinea.
“The Philippines is a world leader in rice cultivation, and they are interested to work with PNG to expand our production.
“In rice trials conducted by Philippines agricultural experts, they have found our soil can yield double the rice per hectare than is possible in many countries in Southeast Asia.”