Farmers walk long distances to sell cattle

The National Main Stories

OVER the last decade, people in Sialum in Tewai-Siassi, Morobe, have been walking with their cattle for days in order to reach markets to sell them.
On Friday, 37 cattle farmers from villages in Sialum arrived in Apo village in the Labuta local level government after a week of walking.
According to group leader Thom Yongi, each of the farmer came with his own cow to sell in Lae.
Yongi said Sialum had more than five cattle ranches with more cattle ready for market but did not have transportation and market access.
The farmers called on authorities to help them develop opportunities for them and help facilitate transportation for their cattle.
Meanwhile, the Government through the Department of Agriculture and Livestock is looking at cutting down on the amount of beef imports to the country by 2022.
In a visit to Erap livestock development corporation station in Huon Gulf two weeks ago, Minister John Simon promised to revive PNG’s beef industry.
“Currently PNG imports 14,000 tonnes of beef,” Simon said.
“We have to work starting now onwards to cut down on (beef) imports.”
He said major cattle ranches throughout the country would be revived.
The minister said the number of cattle in the country was not enough to sustain the local consumption but that would change once the cattle industry was revived.

6 comments

  • Old story reported year in -year out about farmers struggling to sell their produce in PNG. I hope our leaders are seeing these peoples problems, Very few leaders are trying to address the chronic problem affecting this country floating on Oil and Gas.

  • Theses resilient hard working farmers of Sialum continue to bring their cattles to the market not by any transport mode but thru walking days and weeks. Are the governments year in year out blind not see them doing the the hardest. These are kind of people the government should be supporting and prioritizing. They are already established in what they do in the remotest part of the country but what needs to be done is to bring the market to them thru basic infrastructural development. I don’t think this is the same story printed last year. Its heartening to see how hard they want to live. I’am utterly disappointed to see our government blind on such a hard working people. Get them the road and these very hard working farmers will do the rest. Wake up PNG Government and so called Political leaders!

  • After 45 years of independence – its still the same old sad story across PNG. Access to the markets for rural farmers is a very hard reality. Rural folks walking long distances, over days and weeks, with their produce (livestock, cocoa, coffee, vanilla, etc) to either reach the markets or to access government services (hospitals, police, schools, etc).

    It sad to see this has not improved for our people – so many budgets being passed year after year in the name of bringing real development to the rural areas but nothing has changed for the better – our rural people still continue to face the same old struggles everyday. And yet the working class have been very loyal in paying taxes to the government every fortnight every year for the past 45 years.

    We demand change for the better – improved living standards, easy access to markets for our local produce and easy access to government services. After 45 years if these have not improved then we should demand for it (cos sitting down and expecting it to come didn’t get us anywhere).

  • The Westminster system has failed us.
    Our rural areas miss out most.
    We should be looking at another hybrid system of government which may benefit our rural countrymen and women.
    I suggest a simple tribal system where tribes choose a representative to Provincial Assembly.
    Five members of the assembly are voted into National Parliament for a 3-year term and they can only be members of Parliament for 2 terms only.

  • I believe Former member Mao Zeming has the answer to above situation. The Sialum DDA has passed resolution for a barge to be purchase for Sialum. Please do the findings where was the money gone. The proposal was done to lift the burden of shipping agriculture produce to Lae for sales.

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