Agriculture is PNG’s only hope

There is a debate in the PNG National Parliament this week on unemployment, and especially youth unemployment.

It is an issue seldom seriously debated. It is just all too hard.

There is a view that the future lies in some of the more exotic new industries such as carbon credits. It doesn't. It simply cannot make an impact on unemployment which is somewhere north of 80 per cent and rising at over 20000 a year with school leavers alone.

Of the 30000 school leavers barely 6000 can go on to tertiary education. The number of career positions available to graduates each year is probably no more than 2000.

So the problem is massive and the cure just about impossible in the short to medium term.

In the very first speech I wrote for Iambakey Okuk in 1978 he warned that unless the decline in agriculture was reversed then unemployment would just get worse.

Not only has it not been reversed it has got much worse. The export figures don't lie with export volumes for coffee, cocoa and copra are about half what they were 20 years ago.

Underspending on extension services, poor infrastructure such as rural roads and a lack of affordable finance have all contributed.

Only palm oil, an industry still heavily dependent on large scale plantations has grown.

PNG now has three agriculture ministers. It has made no real difference.

If PNG wants to secure the future for its young men and women then it must focus on rebuilding the farm sector. The fisheries sector varies. Sadly too much of it is subject to illegal foreign fishing activity.

Capital investment in fisheries is inadequate. There is no effective promotion of exports.

But agriculture has suffered worst of all.

The decentralisation of services to provinces has just not worked. It has just added another massive level of bureaucracy and red tape to the export sectors in particular.

There is no real incentive for the 80 per cent rural majority to improve crop quality or plant new crops.

As a result, people have become subsistence farmers, growing just the food they need.

What is needed is for PNG and its friends is to get serious about incentives, not gimmicks. They may include fertiliser subsidies and transport and freight support.

The government might subsidise school leavers who want to return to their home province and get into agricultural production.

It needs a large package of measures. And it needs them urgently.

It could build new agricultural colleges to provide skill development programs. It might give farming a higher role in its schools.

I don't think the nation's politicians really understand how serious the problem is.

They are discovering that the total population is actually closer to 12 million not the official figure of 8-9 million.

All that means is the problem is worse than ever. While subsistence farming has a role it is no substitute for the production of export crops.

PNG is headed for a social disaster that might cause serious law and order problems sooner rather than later.

Australia has a role, but the ball is really in the PNG government's corner.

It needs affordable and practical policies.

The much-needed expansion of mining and oil and gas projects cannot be relied on as major job creators. They help but are not the solution to the total challenge PNG faces.

The debate among MPs is welcome. But now is the time for action more than just words!

The people know it's a crisis. They just want action!