Simon plans to boost agriculture development in district

AGRICULTURE and Livestock Minister John Simon plans to boost agriculture development in his district of Maprik.
Simon, who is visiting the district this week, told the people of Maprik on Tuesday that assessments would be done to improve projects followed by new projects.
This will be done with the support of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock as it is a huge task that will be undertaken.
“The workload involved in agriculture and livestock is huge,” Simon said.
“We will move around and look at some of the work that we have done. We will look at all the projects that we’ve initiated.
“We will look at different ways which we can strengthen agriculture and livestock development in Sepik Central.
“We have already started a number of projects which include breeding pigs, cows and growing cash crops such as cocoa.
“We will look at doing a lot more.”
Simon said work involved in agriculture and livestock should start in Maprik.
“We also have a cocoa programme project and we have a scheme which we will be signing with DAL,” he said.
“We have already given them K1 million which is now with the National Development Bank (NDB).”
Through the programme, students in high school and colleges can access loans on the condition that they clean one hectare of cocoa – about 625 cocoa trees.
Participants will be approved by the department and cocoa board because they can access funds from NDB.
The maximum loan is K5,000.
Forestry Minister Solan Mirisim allocated K500,000 to the district for reforestation programmes.