K1m boost for piggery project

 By ANCILLA WRAKUALE

A HOG raiser received a big boost in his production and a means to cut on production costs with a K1 million loan he obtained from the National Development Bank yesterday.

Owner and director of Radho Piggery Ltd Robert Rasaka was a proud recipient of K1 million funding under the National Agriculture Development Project credit scheme.

The piggery loan is payable in 10 years at K15,000 monthly.

The funds would be spent on raw materials to be processed into feeds and on the construction of a new piggery shed.

Rasaka thanked NDB for the assistance, saying it would  save costs for him in the long run and see expansion in his business.

He operates two piggery farms at 15 Mile along the Sogeri Road and supplies pork meat to major super markets in Port Moresby like RH Trading, Boroko Food world and others.

NDB managing director Richard Maru expressed disappointment that current and past governments had  failed to address agricultural issues which resulted in inadequate pig and cattle breeders for livestock raisers.

He said it was  about time the government built a national pig and cattle breeding farms to supply farmers with new stocks and reduce huge importation from countries like Australia.

“We are the bank that is supposed to be assisting the people, but where are the breeding farms?”

Maru said the K20 million allocated to NDB by the national government is insufficient because more people were now engaged in agricultural activities that needed to be funded.