Dept plans to develop rice farming into industry

By DALE LUMA
THE Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) has plans in place to develop a corporate entity to develop rice farming into an industry to generate revenue, an official says.
Programme manager for the department’s rice extension unit Steven Hoko said, in Maprik yesterday, that rice was only a programme in the department. Hoko said the plan would be to create a rice board with its own corporate entity with the push to strengthen domestic rice production.
Rice, unlike other crops, does not have a body in place to manage it and develop strategies, goals and plans to roll out.
Current figures showed that PNG spends, on average, K400 to K500 million each year to import rice depending on the demand.
“The goal is that we at least achieve some level of self-sufficiency in rice production in the country,” he said.
“If we do that, we can save money spent each year buying rice.
“If we target five per cent, that could be like some K10 million to K20 million and as we progressively increase that and, for full sufficiency, we can save K400 million to K500 million or even K600 million.”
He said that the plan was to rollout large scale rice farming with provinces that had plans, starting in Maprik, East Sepik, which would eventually spread to the rest of the country.
He said at one stage East Sepik had around 12,000 smallholder rice farmers while Madang had 4,000.