14/04/2025
Great job genteil man.On behap of Apok coffee limited we give creited to you Mr Wilson Thompson...acl jwk
President of the Eastern Highlands Agriculture Society and the Farmers and Settlers Association and Chairperson and Community Representative on the PNG National Research Institute (NRI) Council Wilson 0. Thompson writes...✍️
In the Private Public Dialogue, it was the public sector putting out plans and policies.
The key points from the private sector and industry are concerns on law and order, poor transport and unreliable public utilities and poor land security.
And at the bottom of this high powered meetings are the farmers and growers and grazers who agree with the public sector leaders and also the private sector industry leaders.
Now they say we are affected by policies and plans and what affects the business and buyers and aggregators.
But we need proper seeds and breeding stock, access to research, extension and training services. We want to utilize machines and new technology but need capital via banks for loans and financial services, want aggregators to deal with and proper support as business.
So after a week, no one has closed the gap from the top to the bottom.
No one mentioned who is doing what to address law and order and in which province first.
No one addressed the lack of electricity and what DAL and agencies doing to address.
We didn't hear from Department of Lands on how they intend to deal with illegal trespass, stealing and rent behavior.
We never heard of how we will work in the areas of Connect PNG and who is going into these new areas.
No one mentioned which LLG or Districts that is focused on and how to increase production and by when.
Whilst Oil Palm has progressed, it needs policy and legislation and land.
FPDA admits the challenges and highlights the need to close the gap between imports and local production and wants to go by each crop or move slowly in each district and province.
NARI has issues of funding, but it needs to be the coordinating agency for all research in the sector.
The new Grains Board came with figures and facts but needs to stay focused on commercial operations and not get into 0.01-to-1-hectare farmers operating in 21 provinces. It will kill itself before it even gets 20,000 hectares of land for production in four regions.
What we needed was to decide who will be doing what, when and names.
DAL and agencies did not mention anything about the SME credit scheme and which industry - coffee, rubber, horticulture, spices, coconut or Cocoa or livestock accessing it.
The PM announced the Agriculture Loan Scheme but is it part of the SME loan or a new one. Is it geared like the 1970s Plantation Redistribution Scheme and Stret Pasin Scheme, or the 1980 Commodity Crops 10-20 Hectare Scheme.
The loan cannot be run by Banks or DAL or Commerce only but needs a Committee of DAL, Commerce, Lands and Treasury and Planning to deliver a one stop package straight to the Land sites like all the Agriculture Settlement Scheme that will radiate to the customary land outside these service centers.
Otherwise, we have high prices and depreciation of Kina that makes us get more for our exports but imports of things we eat and use are mostly from overseas.
We must address production and productivity now. We all know that despite our governments policies and plans on targets for all commodity, from 2000 to 2024, production is declining in nominal and real terms.
We need to change the way we do business and by still doing it again, we are likely to see results that will not help the government, the business knows that they will get more income from high prices whilst the producer is still happy to sell whatever he produces and makes his money.
There is no incentive and motivation on the production and productivity side and as it appears, we are maintaining status quo
Wilson O. Thompson
