Govt must encourage local rice production

 I CONGRATULATE the Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll for the newspaper advertisement calling for expressions  of interest on rice production (July 25). 

Rice is our main staple food. We  must take control of its production and distribution.

This industry will also create other businesses and jobs for our people. 

PNG has the potential to become the food basket of the South Pacific. 

We have been conducting research into rice production and the conclusion is that it is not viable in this country. 

This is utter rubbish because small scale rice production is popping up all over  PNG. 

The government should also encourage our agricultural sector to move away from exporting raw materials and start downstream-processing here.

West New Britain governor Sasindran Muthuvel has spoken about 

processing oil palm and copra. 

We also need to talk about processing coffee and supporting many of our cottage industries. 

The small and medium enterprises conference in Madang was to encourage these industries. 

The Government should channel more money here. 

We have already seen National Development Bank funding meant for agricultural development spent on real estate, trucking businesses and other ventures unrelated to agriculture. 

Hamanga

Port Moresby