Governor urges Central people to cultivate land again

 By TONY PALME KIP

CENTRAL Governor Kila Haoda has challenged his people to return to the land and take farming seriously.

He made the call last Tuesday when presenting a tractor to a farmer, who had been faithful with his vegetable farming on a small plot at Gaire village.

“Central province is just surrounding one of the largest markets which is Port Moresby and the ban has created an opportunity for them,” Haoda stressed. “It’s important we must grow our own food as a community, province and nation.

“We must look at the ban in a positive way and capitalise on it by improving our production, post-harvest handling, cool chain and marketing systems in order to open doors to our farmers.

(The vegetable import ban was lifted early this month. – Editors)

“I want to see more of my people engaged in farming and I want to visit their gardens every day and see what they produce,” Haoda added.

The governor said he had invested over a million kina in acquiring agriculture property in Launakalana in Rigo district to venture into mechanised farming in a big way to supply food to Port Moresby city markets.

He said his commitment to agriculture also included sponsoring five young men to take up basic farming training at the Highlands Agricultural College in Mt Hagen for two years.

He pledged to further support them to undergo extensive training on mechanised farming in Queensland in the last quarter of this year.

Haoda acknowledged the support given by the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in jointly running small resource centres, particularly in Sogeri and Hisiu.

He pointed out there was a need for much greater commitment in ensuring improvements in farming systems and development of appropriate irrigation systems for small farmers.

Haoda said he would want to work with NARI and other donor partners in researching and developing irrigation systems.

He announced that the five-year Central Provincial Agriculture and Livestock Development Plan was 90 per cent complete. The plan was made possible by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, NARI and Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA).