Markham valley is really the food bowl of PNG

It has been said before that Markham is the food bowl of Papua New Guinea. A true fact that has never really come to reality. While anything grows in this very rich fertile valley, the question is why has Markham not reached its potential in agribusiness. It took me a whole day to really get a grip and understand some of the struggles this valley rich district faces when it comes to reaching its true potential in agribusiness.

(These are my views and does not reflect that of the Hon. Koni Iguan MP Markham, the people of Markham, Trukai and Ramu Agri Industries.)

Potential

My visit started of in Erap (Huon District) with the Trukai farm. Having a chat with the staff there, I worked out instantly the massive potential Morobe Province especially part of Huon and the whole of Markham had in agribusiness. And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE, I mean HUGE, I mean GIGANTIC and I mean VERY BIG!

Trukai staff told me about Trukai and its efforts in developing and contributing to Research, Seeding and improving local farmers produce better high quality produce. They spoke of Trukai's efforts in rebuilding their once huge cattle herd and how research has helped them select what type of rice grain is best suited for certain climate, soil type and the lot, especially for the Markham Valley. But the most impressive thing mentioned was how massive the potential is in expanding the agribusiness in Huon and Markham, and how only a small part of the potential is being cultivates so to say.

What can the Markham Valley produce

During my visit I visited prospect sites and old sites. PNG knows what Markham grows on a commercial or industry level and what locals produce as well. The first to come to mind would obviously be the sugarcane, oil palm and cattle. Right? Well that's what most of us think me included.

The Markham Valley can produce anything, I mean the soil is so fertile you can't get any better soil. During my visit, I found Trukai has ventured into rice. Yes locally produced rice! Cocoa, Coffee, Corn, biogas trees, chicken, pigs, forestry pines and trees are some other produce from the Markham Valley. Together with non industry produce like, peanut, coconut and different varieties of bananas you get a very balanced food bowl right there. With talk of a diary to be established outside of Lae, only time will tell when Markham will reach its full potential.

Plantations visited

I would like to personally thank Markham District Administrator, John Orebut for facilitating a very productive visit.

Within a few hours we had a presentation on the district and how it has fared in the last few years and how the current economic crisis PNG is facing is affecting them. We visited the Mutzing Health Centre which serves more then 70 thousand people every year and also its new X-Ray facility. Then the Agmark Cocoa Depot in Mutzing and how that depot is helping the local cocoa farmers with new cocoa breeds and its outreach help to get farmers going in planting, maintaining and harvesting.

A visit to the Morobe Provincial Oil Palm project and the state that it was in was an eye opener. Even more stunning was our visit to the World Bank funded 80 meter high Wind terminal which it is on a daily basis sending data to Belgium, with the aim of one day soon establishing a wind turbine farm in the Markham Valley.

A short but fruitful visit to the Markham Vocational School and then to the proposed site of the Markham Urbanization development project at Umi. From there we visited the new Ragiampun High School (school name TBC) one of only three in the district.

The highlight of my day was visiting the vast corn fields which is owned by Rumion Piggery, PNG Forest Authority forestry and the Ramu Agri-Industries Oil Palm. Those fields were simply breathe taking and amazing plantations.

Rice

The rice fields I visited were simply amazing. The one at Trukai Farms in Erap were about 2 months out before being harvested. While the one they had in Umi were a few weeks old being planted. Remember how they said that rice could not grow in PNG? Well it's a lie, rice grows well in PNG and I saw 100s of hectares of it. The valley could one day produce rice for all the rice consumers in PNG but hurdles and obstacles remain.

Challenges

Like rice all other crops grown in the Markham Valley have some obstacles and challenges. Markham can only become the food bowl of PNG if these hurdles are addressed.

Rice can be mass produced but the problem about rice in my opinion talking to the locals is really simple. First and foremost it lacks the power to produce good yields because of irrigation problems. Don't get me wrong the harvest is of high quality but lack quantity. If irrigated it can triple the harvest per year. And second is the amount of people that will be employed in the rice fields. Yes believe it or not, rice planting and harvesting is all done by machines today. If you have a picture of Asians working in padi fields then you are picturing a different breed of rice.

Land issues affect many of the other produce. While Incorporated Land Groups (ILG) is something that is encouraged and makes things easier, most land owners tend to go solo because they have the land to do so. Irrigation being another issue.

Lack of funding support to these industry products is an issue from the start. While most are promised funding not all get what they need to operate. Don't get me wrong, these projects or industry crops do get funding but to sustain them funding lacks. A good example would be the Morobe Oil Palm project. The project got through the planting phase but then no support funding was granted and now palms are overgrown with bush and oil palm fruits are ripe and just not harvested.

Many other reasons exist but these are the ones the locals have shared with me and I feel I can write about.

So my trip was worthwhile and I can tell you Markham district is in good hands and the people will deliver in the coming years. I still believe one day it will supply the whole of PNG with food. Sugarcane, oilpalm, cattle, corn, coffee, cocoa, peanut, banana, coconut etc...

It only takes one project to take the right kind of support for the rest to follow suit.

Shout out to Hon. Markham MP, DA, Australian Consul General, Trukai, Agmark, Ramu Agri-Industries and the people of Markham!