It is sad to see that the preservation of customary land is being questioned, when the fight to return when wrongly acquired or used invloves lengthy and costly processes that, in many instances, never get returned. Why should we encourage more land owner's ofer customary land to the Government and investors to work in partnership through agricultural activities' like oil palm and coffee when there are people in Collingwood Bay, Turubu and Pomio that are still fighting endlessly to revoke these corrupt SABL deals.

Deals that were created in the pre-text of agricultural schemes that are now practising illegal logging and displacing people from thier land/homes and detroying sacred traditional sites! Is loosing all that assiting to mitigate in higher consumer demand, Mr Tomscoll? This problem you highlight could be the very reason why they migrate to urban centres, because these agricultural schemes, are taking more than they should without consent and pushing the core to the peripherial cities.

Our Land is rich and developed enough as it is! We don't need the capital and the equiptment.

Source: The National

Why do customary landowners lock thier land back at home and migrate to settle on other people's land in urban centres, is what Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll wants to know.

He told customary landowners to stay in thier villages and develop arable land for cash crops and food.

"That would contribute meaningfully to meet increasing consumer demand and a way to maintain food security,"Tomscoll said.

He said due to increasing industrial activities, population growth and migration, landowners needed to help provide some mitigating aspects in high consumer demand.

"Why cannot customary landownersprovide alternatives to work with the Government," he asked.

"Migrating to cities to live on State land and some customary land without putting in any effort creates unecessary issues."

he said that food security was becomming a global concern and PNG was no exception.

"Development will come to you once you change your mindset by ofering customary land to the Government and investors to work in partnership through agricultural activities," he said.

"Customary landowners may have the land and environment but without capital, skills and equiptment to develop, your land has no value," he said.