Markham to become PNG’s ‘food bowl’

By LARRY ANDREW
MARKHAM Valley is advancing towards becoming the country’s “food bowl” as Rangiampum villagers engage in a rice project with assistance from Trukai Industries.
Rangiampum village is in the Umi-Atzera local level government, Markham District, Morobe.
Chingwam Rice Growers Cooperative chairman Michael Maran told The National yesterday that the project was progressing well.
“We worked on 10 hectares in our first trial out but grow the rice on six hectares only. And from that six hectares we harvested 23.5 tonnes, which Trukai paid us K15,000,” he said.
Maran said the cooperative had extended the rice farming up to 80ha after the successful project. The farmers had planted rice on the 40 hectares and were slowly moving on to the next 40 hectares.
“The community is happy for the project and there will be more extension but it will be for later,” he said.
Project manager John Maran said they planted rice in January last year and harvested in mid June with about 24 tonnes.
“By April we will harvest rice from the 40 hectares and by calculating five tonnes per hectare we are looking at almost 200 tonne harvest. First 40 done and another forty to go but continuous rain in the area, there is waterlogged however we’ll still continue planting.”
“All the clans involved in the project from the village, neighbouring clans and communities are happy about the outcome of this project. This is an eye opener for Markham valley and it is a very big news here with farmers showing interest to participate in the project.
The project manager acknowledge Team Trukai for their continuous assistance with machinery, fertilizer and help on weed control.