Online sales by farmers to start

By JAMES GUMUNO
FARMERS in Jiwaka will be going online to sell their garden produce and livestock.
Jiwaka and East Sepik were two provinces in the country chosen by the national government to roll out the electronic agriculture pilot projects initiated by Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and now taken on board by the National Information Communication Technology Authority (Nicta) and Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL).
Jiwaka provincial administration signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Thursday to roll out the electronic agriculture or in short known as “e-Agriculture” in the province.
Acting provincial administrator Stefan Wusuk signed the MOA on behalf of the provincial government.
Wusuk thanked Nicta for funding the project at a cost of K600,000 for the information technology company to provide free internet services to the farmers to sell their produce, livestock, find solutions to control pest and diseases over the internet using their donated smart mobile phones.
He said the first phase of the pilot project in his province started in August with the training of 25 farmers.
The provincial government donated 25 smart phones to the farmers, helped them to set up email accounts, create websites and basic steps on how to use their phones to market their products online.
He said the provincial government gave priority to agriculture which was in line with the national government’s priority.
“We want to empower farmers in the province to go into organic farming using information communication technology.”
Wusuk said with the free internet at three hotspot areas at Kurumul provincial headquarters, Kinghu Hi-Tech and Fatima Technical Vocational Education Training, the farmers would stay within a 2 km radius of these locations and access the internet and market their products.
He said the transaction would be done online, buyers would come straight to farmers and buy their produce.