South Fly to grow, mill rice

Business

By ERIC PIET
SOUTH Fly district in Western will now grow and mill its own rice, MP Seki Agisa says.
He bought and transported rice milling equipment to Daru last week which will be set up on the island.
To supplement that, Agisa has already paid for 800kg of rice seedlings from Lae, which will be shipped to Daru to be distributed to growers.
“The people of South Fly will mill and pack their own rice,” he said.
“I want to have the people put money into their pockets by selling their milled rice to available markets here in the country.
“Our land in mainland South Fly is very suitable and conducive for the cultivation of very productive and healthy rice.
“In fact, the entire Western province is just right for rice farming.
“My colleague MP for North Fly, James Donald, is also taking the same approach for his people there.
“Governor (Taboi) Yoto is very supportive of this.”
The rice seedlings, when they arrive in Daru, will be distributed among growers in Oriomo, Bituri, Transfly, Morehead, Suki, Pahoturi and Binaturi areas.
“We are actually trying to make agriculture a priority for our people in the province,” Agisa said.
“Our people are very hard working and it should not be a problem.
“As their leaders, we only need to provide avenues for them to till the land productively.”
Agisa said accessibility to the production facility and market by farmers were important in sustainability of the whole project.
He said K5 million had already been committed to start upgrading of the Oriomo-Sota (Indonesia) Highway.
“Most of the rice growers live further inland, so we are starting to build an economical road that will sustain them for generations,” Agisa said. “Initial work will commence early this year for Oriomo to
Wipim.
“I want to thank Governor Yoto for counter-funding the road project with K1 million and the North Fly MP for his support of K100,000 on top of the K3.9 million committed from my district’s internal revenue funds.
“I will progressively continue to fund the road in the years to come until it gets to the border town of Sota in Indonesia.”

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