Project addresses food security

By LARRY ANDREW
SEVERAL agencies and organisations have come together to initiate a project to address food security in Morobe.
The Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) has partnered with the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, National Agriculture Research Institute (Nari), PNG Women in Agriculture, Taiwan Technical Mission and Trukai Industries to work on a 20-hectare food security project launched at Erap, DAL site, last Wednesday.
The project aims to address food security issues as a result of the Covid-19-enforced state of emergency.
Morobe senior extension adviser for FPDA Conrad Anton said the project would involve planting and distribution of local sweet potatoes and other varieties.
“The clean cuttings will produce high yield tubers,” he said.
“These are the cuttings we will grow in one hectare of the field to multiply the sweet potato variety cuttings to distribute to our farmers in the province, including those of our stakeholders.”
Anton said a nursery house would be set up in Erap to ensure more cuttings were grown, with plant seeds to be sourced from Aiyura in Eastern Highlands and Nari.
“The cuttings will then be distributed to our contact farmers who can plant the clean cuttings to get high tubers,” he said.