Farming in PNG must be commercial, says Maru

INTERNATIONAL Trade and Investment Minister Richard Maru says the focus should now be on commercial farming rather than subsistence and smallholder-farming.
Maru said this during his visit to the National Agricultural Research Institute (Nari) on Tuesday to discuss how it could contribute to the Government’s aim to transition from subsistence and stallholder farming to commercial farming.
He said Papua New Guinea was still trapped in the loop of subsistence and smallholder farming, which could not hope to replace imports or develop export commodities.
“We are still importing K900 million worth of rice, and we are going to import more,” he said.
“With the amount of land, rivers, fertile soil and climate we have, we should be moving away from old methods of farming.
“People are complaining about inflation and the cost of living because we (government and private sector) have all failed them.”
Maru said the Government had started a state-equity funding mechanism to reduce the cost of doing businesses, remove impediments, and partner with the private sector to grow business.
He said the Government wanted a joint venture partner to discuss commercial farming.
Nari chairman Nimo Kama said the institute would be conducting research to support the government’s policy on commercialisation and value-added processing.