Identify real farmers: Basil

By DALE LUMA
THE Kokonas Indastri Koporesen (KIK) should identify legitimate farmers and downstream processors from rural areas in order to get financial support from the government, National Planning and Monitoring Minister Sam Basil says.
Basil said this during the opening ceremony of the Coconut Festival, which started yesterday at the Sir John Guise Indoor Complex in Port Moresby.
The event ends tomorrow.
He said this would help stop people, who were not farmers and producers of coconut products, acquire funds.
“Learning from experience, the Kokonas Indastri Koporesen and its agencies must be able to identify the real farmers and the real downstream producers,” Basil said.
“This is because when we start farming programmes and projects, we do not repeat the mistakes of the past to entertain paper farmers who live in Port Moresby.
“My department learning from past mistakes will hold hands with KIK and many other commodities to make sure that we deliver the much needed support.”
Basil said the Government was planning to consolidate and increase funding for the agriculture sector beginning next year.
He said coconut alone was a lucrative business and the Government would try to help the industry through various projects because it was a rural industry.
“It puts money back into the pockets of our subsistence farmers, our micro small medium enterprise (MSME) and private sector investors,” he said.
“The government will continue to invest in coconut research and development, support processing of high-value products and marketing, coconut nursery establishment and distribution through biosecurity rules and climate change resilience programmes as well.”
Deputy Prime Minister Davis Steven added in his keynote speech that budget support was assured especially for the Small Medium Enterprises (SME) sector.