Every Papua New Guinean is born rich with abundant resources notwithstanding our natural talents and our mental toughness and agility to survive in different situations but unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances that have been indiscriminately inflicted on us by various policymakers since independence have caused us to be poorer and we have literally become beggars in our own land.
A tragedy isn’t it? But who should we blame?
In essence, you don’t need to send PNGeans to do a degree program to learn the necessary skills to plant and harvest vegetables or study for years to know how to feed a pig.
Kudos to the Enga Governor who is sending thousands of Engans to work in farms in Australia. Now ceteris paribus, if we switch that sort of arrangement around so that resources are redeployed within PNG, we are potentially the food bowl in the region.
According to history, PNG is the birthplace of agriculture. Ironically we cannot produce food crops in quantities that can feed the growing population. I believe agriculture and livestock production is the only industry with immense potential to sustainably contribute to growing our economy and also provide ample food security. At the same time keeping the majority of PNG citizens occupied in farming will contribute significantly to reducing the incidences of social issues so prevalent in our society.
PNG as a country should put lessor emphasis on downstream processing and that includes striving to manufacture finished products which other developed countries already have competitive advantages with regard to their economies of scale. To be competitive, some rudimentary issues that PNG needs to hone in on include but are not limited to:
1: Inefficient and costly utility services in power, water, internet, etc
2: high transportation costs
3. Low skill base for blue-collar jobs
4. Drop in quality of training in vocational education
5. High incidence of uncontrollable crime rates and resultant socioeconomic issues
6. Fragmented value chain - lack of coherent/ systematic support arrangements. For example, SMEs can provide spin-off activities within specific parameters.
7. Underdeveloped Capital market resulting in onerous and costly processes for mobilisation of capital.
A case in point is a major rice distributor imports around 1,000 (TBC) shipping containers of rice per month or 12,000 containers per annum. The value of imported rice goes into the hundred million which is close to a billion per annum. This begs the question of why PNG hasn’t been able to grow rice over the last 50 or so years since independence? Why did successive governments allow the leakage of billions of dollars over 5 decades? Rice has now become a staple food for average PNGeans. Perhaps the rice that is distributed in PNG is actually imported from Asia to Australia and back to PNG. So we have been coping with the bullshit for many years and will continue to do so into the future for as long as God knows how long.
In essence, our politicians and policymakers continue year after year for decades in low-value initiatives with little to no economic benefit, and whatever those policy initiatives yield is inadequate to cater to the exponential growth in our country’s population and especially, the young people who are now imploding into more illegal activities since they are mostly unoccupied. The exponential growth in the young population was seen as a time bomb 10 to 15 years ago. That bomb is now exploding in every corner of PNG. An alarming crime rate is a good indication.
The socioeconomic issues in our country need to be addressed in a big way and I suppose the low-hanging fruit keeps staring at our face yet successive governments have continued to ignore it. Government should focus on agriculture where therein lies the massive opportunity to keep young folks occupied so that they can contribute meaningfully to society and the economy.
Well, in order to create a vibrant growing economy that is underpinned by agriculture, PNG perhaps needs to focus on the following areas:
1. Schemes of Funding for farmers/ fishermen
2. Consistent supply of seedlings that can withstand harsh weather conditions (laNino/ Elnino) and encourage farming diversity of crops and livestock.
3. Bring the old system of Agriculture extension officers back
4. Subsidize the cost of market accessibility
5. Perhaps allow each District Development Authority (DDA) to buy specialized farming equipment to be utilized in commercial arrangements with farmers like for instance purchasing tractors
Take a look at a scenario where our government issues a directive to limit the importation of rice by 2027. Tasks every district authority in 2023 to support farmers within respective constituencies to grow food crops like Kaukau, Bananas, Taro even rice and live stocks, etc. to bolster internal food security. Imagine how much PNG as a country could save and thereon redistribute wealth in the billions that are currently outflowing as a result of importing rice, meat, and vegetables.
To conclude, I must commend the Marape/Rosso Government for taking an unpopular decision to split the Agriculture Ministry into 4 separate ministries. The policy direction is a noble one and only time will tell about the success of this decision by PM Marape.
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