Rice takes root at Trukai farm

 THE agribusiness division of Trukai Industries is harvesting rice from its production farm at Gabmatzung, near Nadzap Airport, Morobe.

The crop is part of Trukai’s ongoing rice seed programme focused on the production of pure seed for commercial scale rice farming in Papua New Guinea. 

It would be used for trial at a commercial scale rice farm at Trukai’s Erap farms.

The company believed that the season’s irrigated seed crop would yield five tonnes per hectare, which is a positive result.

Trukai’s rice development officer Humphrey Saese said: “Building the Papua New Guinea rice industry will depend on very good seed production capacity, which will produce pure seeds for the industry throughout PNG.”

Using this seed, Trukai would plant another 100 hectares using several rice varieties to establish which one was best suited for commercial production in the region. 

Trukai had plans to build several large scale rice farms around the country with nearby processing facilities to support smallholder farmers. 

The facilities would become a central marketing point for smallholder rice farmers who would grow their own rice and supply their grains to the central processing facility.

The company had recently brought 34 new varieties of rice and trials were being conducted by the University of Technology’s agriculture department. 

The best varieties selected from the trials would be multiplied and distributed to small holder growers and Trukai’s other large scale rice farming operations in the country.