Nari wants to be close and personal with people

By JUNIOR UKAHA
National Agriculture Research Institute (Nari) wants to look beyond Government policies and touch the lives of the people in the communities, says chairman Prof Chalapan Kaluwin.
Kaluwin said this yesterday during commemoration of Nari’s 21st year of operation in the country.
The celebration coincided with World Food Day.
It was held at Nari Field Research Station at Kerevat in Gazelle, East New Britain.
“We want to talk about Nari in terms of developing our people,” Kaluwin said.
“We want to address poverty by touching the lives of our people. We want to go beyond Government and use technologies to support farming. We know that there are challenges like lack of resources but we will continue to work with our partners.”
Kaluwin thanked international partners like the European Union, Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research and others for working with Nari in agricultural research projects over the years.
He said the aim was to create a sustainable agriculture development platform for the country.
Kaluwin said one of the biggest threats to food security efforts was climate change.
He said the country had many outling islands whose people were already feeling the effects of climate change like rising sea levels.
Kaluwin said Nari wanted to reach out to those people and assist them to sustain themselves in terms of food security.