Support local agriculture

I READ an interesting business article about Kome local level government apple farmers and their produce in Menyamya, Morobe.
I want to congratulate them for having the courage to come out and seek support from Morobe government to assist them in weeding out the apple bugs.
Papua New Guinea is capable of producing apples and other marketable agricultural produce and entering the export commodity markets instead of continuing to rely on imported goods into our country.
Our Government should start planning and investing in long-term agriculture products to cut down on imported goods and enter into export markets.
Papua New Guinea should not continue to listen to advises from foreign countries who are saying we cannot grow this and that.
These foreign advisers or scientists are only protecting the interest of their countries.
Other countries continue to export our raw material out and creating many processing employments in their countries.
They then end up selling the finish products to us a high costs.
Morobe has a huge land mass and fertile soil.
Morobe can be an agriculture food processing province.
That is possible if our national, provincial and district governments and scientists can work together to identify possibilities instead of sitting down and dreaming.
Papua New Guineans are hardworking people.
They are ready to help our country’s economic growth but they need the support of our Government and the public service machinery system.
Our leaders should stop playing unnecessary politics and work together to build a better tomorrow for our future generations.

Samson C Napo,
Former Bulolo MP