Infrastructure issues affect production

INFRASTRUCTURE issues remain a major challenge for farmers and businesses in the agriculture and livestock sector in rural areas, according to the Farmers and Settlers Association.
Bad roads contribute to the decrease in supply of finished products or the transportation of fresh produce to markets.
Association president Wilson Thompson said agriculture production was declining even with interventions such as the World Bank-funded productive partnership in agriculture project (PPAP).
He said coffee and cocoa production and export had dropped while copra had almost vanished.
“The private sector had continued to trudge along and provide opportunities even in rural areas or in areas without much infrastructure too,” he said.
Thompson said the Colbran Coffeelands, one of the coffee planters in the country, was operating in the rural areas despite road issues.
The Zenag chicken farm in Bulolo, a division of Highlands Products Ltd, had also raised concerns on the bad road condition along the Lae/Bulolo highway.
Managing director Dr. Philip Leahy told The National that the road had been in a state of disrepair for at least three years.
The road is the farm’s only means to transport products.