JEFFREY FEBI
EVERY year, the Papua New Guinea government avoids making a firm commitment towards improving the agriculture sector.
So what is it that’s keeping the government from making a firm budgetary commitment to agriculture and venturing into wide scale and sustainable agricultural development?
Investment in agriculture should have been given a boost 20 years ago. PNG had land. It had money coming in as minerals exports grew.
The potential for earning billions was enormous. It still is.
PNG however continues on its path of denial.
The blind insistence on relying solely on extractive industries for revenue generation is preposterous.
It is an attitude akin to a liver patient who continues to drink alcohol. The outcome is certain unless the patient stops drinking.
In fact, I don’t have an answer to my question.
I can think of no reason as to why agriculture is given so little attention. I can see nothing that justifies PNG's attitude towards this important industry.
So what then might PNG's excuse be? An oversight? A conspiracy to keep PNG dependent on foreign food imports?
I enjoy the occasional conspiracy theory, so let me delve into this.
There is good reason to believe there's collusion to ensure PNG, with its fast growing population, continues to depend on agricultural imports.
The PNG market is worth hundreds of millions. It is a niche market for the agricultural powers that be. It would be insane for these powers to voluntarily lose the PNG market.
The next time you hear of a bug destroying betel trees and nuts from Markham to Madang, and from Keiave to Rigo, remember I told you so.