A PNG green revolution is just wishful thinking

This is essentially what the green revolution has been about although some experts say future productivity gains may be harder to come by. Nevertheless crop yields in developing countries are about 57 per cent less than yields in developed countries - a gap that suggests that massive growth in output is still possible.

It has to be added that much of the green revolution has been due to government-funded research and development activities.

Clearly to talk about a green revolution in Papua New Guinea is less than meaningful because fundamental challenges need to be urgently addressed. As long as a prime property such as Wahgi Mek, once a prized jewel among the nation’s coffee plantations, remains in a state of disrepair it remains a sad symbol to the inadequacies of agriculture in PNG.

What about the disgraceful state of the coconut and copra industry, where production has almost fallen into oblivion? This terrible situation has been known for many years but almost nothing is being done for an industry that once was an important lifeline for tens of thousands of families.

How can we talk about a green revolution and higher productivity when prime properties are sitting idle or valuable resources are allowed to run down to the point of negative returns?

We cannot tell for sure how many people are currently employed in agriculture by the private sector because it is difficult for a lay person to translate the employment index figures regularly published by the Bank of Papua New Guinea. Anyhow, BPNG is showing there has been a 16.9 per cent gain in jobs in agriculture, forestry and fisheries between the March quarter of 2002 and the March quarter last year, possibly the biggest such increase in the past one or two decades.

But the latest figures to hand from the Institute of National Affairs show there were just over 47,000 workers in the agriculture sector in the year to June 2001. Interestingly the INA data also shows there were 10,000 more jobs in this sector in 1994.

In 2003, PNG exported 40,300 tonnes of cocoa but in 1996 the figure was 41,000 tonnes. Production of coffee in 2003 totalled 68,800 tonnes compared to a record 83,000 tonnes five years prior to that in 1998 and 65,000 tonnes in 1994.

Palm oil is the one crop that stands out as a success story with an output of 327,000 tonnes in 2003 although there was slightly better production in 2000 and 2001.

It is ironic because if we talk about a green revolution in the PNG context, the oil palm story fits in quite well mainly because of the consistent effort and tremendous research and development carried out by New Britain Palm Oil Ltd in West New Britain.

NBPOL, which is the only truly integrated agricultural company in the country, is at the cutting edge of biotechnological research. It exports palm oil seeds to many other countries and has commercial seed operations in Asia and Latin America.

For a variety of reasons even NBPOL is constrained in its ability to grow but clearly, PNG has the capability of greatly boosting output and productivity in agriculture. But, as I suggested at the beginning, maybe the real problem is that we do not know what the problems are.