Land-use policy prioritised

By NATHAN WOTI
THE Oil Palm Ministry is working with the Lands Department to find a way forward for private landowners to commercialise their land for large agriculture farming purposes.
This follows the Government’s target for the agriculture sector to reach K30 billion in revenue by 2027.
At present according to World Economics, PNG’s agricultural sector accounts for 26 per cent or K10.14 billion of the annual gross domestic product.
Oil Palm Minister Francis Maneke told The National that land would be one a key priority under the new Oil Palm policy.
“There are potential areas in Morobe, Central and Milne Bay that we have identified for large scale oil palm farming,” he said.
“The only issue holding back expansion of large scale agriculture activities in the country is the shortage of land.
“The state does not own a lot of land, most land is owned by traditional landowners.
“The only way to utilise that land while including the landowners in the development of their lands would be to commercialise it. And we have been talking to the Lands Department to come up with a programme that we can bring those land under the commercial arrangement and use it for agriculture,” Maneke said.
He added that the Oil Palm Ministry was looking at other provinces with the potential of growing oil palm apart from traditional oil palm growing provinces such as West New Britain and Northern.
Maneke recently presented a cheque for K540,000 to Higaturu Oil Palm Limited during the launch of National Oil Palm Intervention Plan in Popondetta, Northern.
The funding is aimed at ensuring the provision of high-quality seedlings to local small block holder growers, a critical move to boost production and counter the problem of ageing trees.
Meanwhile, Maneke said there would be opportunities for other international investors to come in once the policy was set up. He also commended small growers and New Britain Palm Oil for bringing the industry to where it was today.
“We are looking at partnering with countries within our region such as Malaysia, which have the largest production every year, Singapore and Indonesia. But first we need to mobilise land so that it captures the ideal set up of a large scale oil palm company,” he added.
Maneke will be in Milne Bay today to launch the Government intervention and replant programme.