Think business, farmers urged

PAPUA New Guinea has geographical features that are suitable to various agricultural activities, but lack of economic thinking has been one of the constraints.
Department of Agriculture and Livestock secretary Anton Benjamin said training and innovative ideas were needed for rural farmers to proceed in agricultural activities to benefit economically in a larger scale.
The remark was made earlier this month during the launching of a report on the rural informal sector in PNG at the National Research Institute in Port Moresby Benjamin said the national agricultural development plan was to encourage active involvement in agriculture and to educate the people on its importance and a major challenge for the department and the local farmers was to work together to implement the policy.
He made mention on the need for skills training for the farmers and stressed that basic management skills was required by most rural farmers to proceed in agricultural activities o benefit economically.
He stressed that the country’s farmers were smart but lacked economical thinking in order to boost the agricultural activities that they are involved in.
“We need to work to develop skills for production.”