Rice farmers doing it for themselves

 FAMILIES, community groups and cooperatives throughout the country have captured the vision in what had turned out to be quite a successful self-help campaign led by the Agriculture and Livestock Department together with a number of other stakeholders. 

Hundreds of rural Papua New Guineans now grow their own rice instead of depending on imports and over time this should be reflected in a substantial reduction in the country’s annual rice bill – given necessary assistance.

Overseas, technical experts like the Taiwanese technical mission in Lae and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency along with industry players like Trukai Industries Ltd and educational institutions have all had a hand in assisting communities and cooperatives to become self-reliant in rice. People are growing their own rice and saving family incomes they would otherwise be spending on rice.

The campaign has borne fruit in most coastal provinces.  Provinces in the Momase and New Guinea Islands especially have quite successfully taken on rice as a major food crop and households are now reaping the benefits of it.  Eastern Highlands, Jiwaka and Western Highlands provinces have also followed suit in the planting of the grain which has become PNG’s staple already.

Individual farmers and cooperatives have been successfully growing rice for years now. However, it is now evident that the next big question for rice growers throughout the country is what happens to the surplus or where is the market for it?

This is not about a few kilograms of milled product but tonnes of dried grain good for milling using large scale machinery. 

Rice growing has moved on from the individual family backyard gardening to communally-owned fields of tens of hectares already.  

Take farmers in Western Highlands and Jiwaka, for example, who are faced with a problem in that they have no competent packaging facility and a market for their produce.

Without an assurance about such important aspects of growing the crop, the farmers had enthusiastically cultivated the land only to realise there is no ready market or processing facilities perhaps  larger than their small machines they currently use to mill just enough for family consumption.

Farmer Camillus Kumbi of Dei district, for instance, reportedly nearly three tonnes of rice in his first harvest but wonders how or who would help him package his product and sell it.

Encouraged by the success of his first crop, the farmer has proceed to prepare 10 more hectares of land to plant further.  But his enthusiasm would likely be dampened if he receives no reassurance about the future success and viability of his enterprise.

In neighbouring  Jiwaka, the Jiwaka Rice Cooperative is looking at reaping a healthy harvest from more than 30ha it has cultivated so far. 

However, the concern is the same as in Western Highlands: Who will assist in milling and packaging their crop and where is the market for it? 

In the absence of such a market, it would mean that either the crop will be wasted or disposed of at a very low price rendering the cooperatives future endeavours uneconomical and attractive.

That would certainly be disincentive for those involved in the whole campaign to localise rice production at the household level and also large scale farming like that undertaken by the Jiwaka Rice Cooperative.

The farmers have urged the government to take its push its drive for local rice production a notch higher and establish a ready market for the local product.

Without packaging and marketing facilities the work large scale groups such as the Jiwaka Rice Cooperative and others around the country would simply lose interest in what they do. 

The government’s efforts to promote rice for ensure food security and for import replacement would be wasted if it does not provide facilities and market avenues to sustain production now that interest in the crop has truly caught on.

Perhaps, too much time and effort has spent on a mega rice project such as the one proposed for the Central province.  A lot more work is required for such a huge undertaking to come to fruition but for now the government should take the lead in ensuring that small scale production is made viable.

Rice growers like those in Western Highlands and Jiwaka have a real and immediate concern that must be addressed before we can talk import replacement meaningfully.