CEO and Chairman of Japan Development Institute (JDI), Dr. Shoichi Kobayashi said that Papua New Guinea (PNG) will not succeed in its plan to develop agriculture if it does not seriously look at largescale mechanized farming.
“That is where the whole world is heading; it is cheaper and more efficient, and it can produce in large volumes, whether you are doing rice or casava,” said Dr. Kobayashi.
“I want to encourage PNG Government to seriously go into largescale mechanized farming if the country wants to succeed in replacing foods imports. The Government needs to mechanize some of the production, otherwise it will not happen. You already have the land but mechanization is the key, otherwise you will fail; the formula for success in any production is mechanization. This is how many countries in Asia are successful in production,” Dr. Kobayashi said.
Dr. Kobayashi said during his visit to the Erap Casava Factory in Lae, Morobe Province this morning, together with his team of experts and local consultants, led by the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru. The Casava factory built and owned by SP Brewery is currently not in operation because the farmers are not supplying the casava since they are not happy with the price.
“To make the factory work, the company must have a large mechanized farm, like they do in Asia; it will not work without mechanization. With mechanization, you will minimize the cost of labour and then it will be viable to open the factory when you have enough volume coming through,” said Dr. Kobayashi.
Meanwhile, Minister Maru and the expert team did a helicopter tour of the proposed Nadzab SEZ and Labu SEZ, Markham Valley and the Ramu Agri Industries today in their visit to the Province. They also visited Wia Trade where they were given a tour of the coffee factory before returning to Port Moresby in the afternoon.
