Expert: Agro policy vital

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday 3rd June 2013

 By PISAI GUMAR

GOVERNMENT should understand the difference between productivity, production and how the production unit influences farming before drafting new agricultural policy, an agriculture expert said.

Geeman Gaotia Pangarie said in agricultural activities, growth and decline of products were measured in number of ways. 

Pangarie said it included total crop production volume, yield per hectare, cost per hectare, total productive crop stands per hectare, tonnage of crop produced per man-days, area of crop land cultivated per man-days, area of crop land cultivated per machine hours.  

These factors indicate growth or decline in farming or plantation activities measured over a specific period of time.

Pangarie said Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather’s response to new policy direction for agriculture in the country was timely. It required policy makers, implementers, responsible agencies and industries to develop policies that will bring country’s poor productivity rate up to a required standard within and abroad, he said.

“Fairweather’s statement on the failures of the past and present systems, strategies and policy implementation in the agriculture sector was true because Papua New Guinea experienced decline in overall growth of cocoa, coffee and copra production except for oil palm,” Pangarie said. 

“In farming perspective, production is the total volume of crop produced, using all resources at the farm over a period. 

“The productivity is the indicator of how much an individual has produced as a result of labour over a period.”