Envoy: Sustain partnership

 THE new Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea Bruce Davis says he wants to see partnership between National Agricultural Research Institute and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research maintained and to further develop programmes and resources.

Last week, on his first visit to NARI in Lae upon his appointment, Davis promised to back the agricultural research and related programmes through the existing partnership. 

“Agricultural research is one of the fundamental areas the Australian government has been working on through partnership,” Davis said. 

“Agriculture is very important and we want to continue working closely to see how best the industry can be developed for the benefit of the broader population in the country through improved farming systems and technologies.

“Agriculture is here to stay and it is very important to work closely together to see how best the sector can be developed.”  

National Agricultural Research Institute director general Dr Sergie Bang, in a brief presentation, said PNG was very much dependent on agriculture with over 80 per cent of its population relying on agriculture mostly in subsistence activity in rural areas.

“NARI, among other agencies, strives to see that its goal, purpose and programmes are achieved through improved welfare of rural families and communities who depend wholly or partly on agriculture for their livelihood,” Dr Bang said.

“NARI has a role on the impact pathway and that is developing technologies, strategies, policies to piloting of promising research outputs to outscaling and up scaling of such interventions.

Dr Bang said he valued the great partnership with ACIAR in the last 20 years through improved knowledge creation, technology development and capacity building in research skills.

ACIAR is funding 14 projects and is a major partner with NARI implementing projects in market access.