By Estella Cheung

THE agriculture sector has a huge untapped potential to create wealth and broad-based economic growth for PNG.
 New Agriculture and Livestock Minister Philip Kikala said this during his briefing with heads of commodities agencies and agricultural institutions on Monday, adding that the sector’s core contributions are in the areas of food security, cash income generation, employment creation and poverty alleviation.


“Agriculture is fundamental for growth and sustainable development in PNG. It is the basic instrument for improvement for quality of life for the majority in PNG,” Minister Kikala said.


He said before the gold, copper, gas and oil era in PNG, it was the agriculture sector that supported the economy.
 “Agriculture will continue to play an important role until the end of the oil and gas era,” he said.


Mr Kikala stressed that there is a need to increase production and rehabilitation of export commodities especially within the plantation sector.
 He encouraged the heads of agriculture agencies present at the briefing to have open dialogue and work together to device strategies that would help Papua New Guineans sustain their livelihood during times of natural disasters like dry seasons, landslides and heavy rain and flooding.


“The agriculture sector is currently experiencing a period of exceptionally good prices for nearly all export commodity crops,” he said.
 He said that the volumes of agricultural commodity export varied between subsector industries. 
The minister said export volume increases were recorded on average for oil palm, rubber and marine products while production declines were recorded for cocoa, copra and copra oil.