Papua
New Guinean food security
wilts By Catherine Wilson
PORT MORESBY - Agriculture provides a
livelihood to the majority of the population in
Papua New Guinea, a developing island nation of
approximately seven million in the south west
Pacific. However, the loss and waste of an
estimated half of all fresh produce between
harvesting and marketing is threatening
improvements to food security and local incomes.
Yer Kirul, a fresh produce grower and
vendor at Gordon's food market in the capital,
Port Moresby, told IPS, "We sell our produce, but
not always all of it. What isn't sold is either
given to street vendors at the end of the day or
thrown away. There is a lot of waste."
Papua New Guinea is located to the equator
and Kirul does not
have access to storage
facilities for his perishable fruit and vegetables
in the year-round heat and humidity.
According to a survey by the Fresh Produce
Development Agency (FPDA), which is working to
develop a sustainable commercial food industry,
only 13% of farmers in nearby Central Province had
sold produce to buyers with cool-room facilities.
"We also need better marketing," Kirul
said. "People are buying small quantities. We
would like to sell larger quantities to buyers."
The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) reports that one third of food
produced globally for human consumption, amounting
to 1.3 billion tonnes annually, is wasted through
loss or disposal. Wider ramifications include the
waste of water, energy and resources used in food
production.
Most food waste occurs in the
industrialized world where 40% is discarded by
retailers and consumers. But in developing and low
income countries, 40% of food loss occurs after
harvesting, due to factors like premature
harvesting and lack of infrastructure, processing,
storage facilities and marketing.
The FPDA
reports that up to 50% of food produced in Papua
New Guinea is lost in the post-harvest phase. The
agency says quality is a critical issue, with a
significant proportion of fresh food not meeting
the standards of large buyers and wholesalers,
often resulting in produce being sold at
negligible prices or thrown away.
Nalau
Bingeding, Research Fellow at the National
Research Institute, told IPS, "Poor roads and
transport infrastructure are a big issue in regard
to post-harvest selling in Papua New Guinea. A lot
of garden food is produced in rural areas, but due
to lack of roads and markets for the produce the
food is either wasted or fed to livestock."
In rural and peri-urban areas of Papua New
Guinea, small farmers cultivating a range of crops
including potatoes, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes,
taros, yams, mangoes and pawpaws are often both
the growers and marketers.
In 2008, the
FPDA conducted a socio-economic study of 175 male
and 160 female farmers, with an average age of 39
years, from six provinces. It revealed that 73%
believed the most significant issue in selling
their yield was difficult transport and road
conditions, 43% identified oversupply conditions
associated with low market capacity, 22% named low
prices and 21% cited waste.
In Papua New
Guinea, difficult mountainous terrain, weak public
service delivery and mismanagement of public funds
has impeded the development of an effective
national road network. Thus travel between main
urban centers such as Port Moresby on the south
coast, Popondetta in the north east and Wewak on
the north coast is only possible by ship or
aircraft. Air services throughout the country
cater for this demand, but are very expensive.
The Department of Works reports that only
2,609 kilometers of a total road network
comprising 8,738 kilometers are rated in good
condition and 64% of all national roads are
unsealed. The most extensive main road is the
Highlands Highway, which is 800 kilometers long
and connects Enga and Hela Provinces in the west
of the country to Lae in Morobe Province on the
east coast.
Challenges for truck drivers
and transport companies include severe physical
deterioration of the road surface and armed
hold-ups and vandalism by rural gangs along the
highway's route.
According to the FPDA,
85% of farmers surveyed in Papua New Guinea used
local buses to transport their harvest to market
with only 4% owning their own vehicle.
The
FAO recommends that investment in roads,
transportation, marketing and food processing by
national public and private sectors would
significantly help small farmers to improve
production and access markets, thereby decreasing
post-harvest losses.
The Government's
Development Strategic Plan (2010-2030) includes
targets to rehabilitate existing road
infrastructure and triple the road network to
25,000 kilometers within the next 18 years.
Attaining this goal will depend on the
government's success with funding and
implementation.
Meanwhile the FPDA,
according to a spokesperson, is focused on
developing the domestic market with many of the
country's food producers not yet ready to supply
an overseas market. The agency is training farmers
and developing technologies to improve the quality
management of fresh produce and developing
linkages between farmers and commercial buyers.
At present, many growers have limited and
insecure business relationships with buyers and
wholesalers. One successful FPDA initiative is the
provision of market information to farmers by
mobile phone.
Advancing the food
processing industry in Papua New Guinea would also
reduce the rate of waste.
"Papua New
Guineans lack knowledge to preserve most food
crops after harvest resulting in food being wasted
because it cannot be stored longer in an
unprocessed form without refrigeration," Bingeding
told IPS. "What is needed is to transform sweet
potato and taro into other forms, for example,
taro or sweet potato noodles or flour, to prolong
their shelf life."
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
