A Dream Come True! PNG RICE PRODUCTION PLAN ASSURES PH OF RICE SUPPLY

Port Moresby – Papua New Guinea, a country with 46.2-million hectares of fertile land and only 10-million people, now looms as the Philippines hope in supplying the rice requirements of a growing population 20 to 30 years from today.
In the three-day stay in PNG of an agricultural delegation from the Philippines which I led, I was able to get a firm commitment of support from the PNG Government that the Rice Program that the country will launch this year includes a long-term plan of supplying rice to the Philippines.
“Help us develop our Rice Industry and anything that you produce in excess of what we (Papua New Guinea) need, you could bring home with you to the Philippines,” Prime Minister James Marape told the delegation during a call in his office on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister’s commitment was the first step in the realization of a long-term Food Security Vision for the Philippines which I crafted six years ago.
I projected then that with population growth rate of 1.9% per year, the rice farming area of the country would not be able to produce the requirements of a huge population 20 to 30 years later.
With the encouragement of then President Rodrigo Duterte, I engaged the PNG government as early as 2017 and signed an Agricutural Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and Papua New Guinea which led to the opening of a Rice Demonstration Farm at the Pacific Adventist University near Port Moresby.
A young and daring Filipino businessman, Jomerito Soliman, supported vigorously by the Philippine Ambassador to PNG, Bienvenido Tejano, funded the PAU Rice Demonstration Farm which yielded an average of 8-metric tons per hectare.
The strategy was to invite Filipino companies to invest in the Rice Industry of Papua New Guinea to supply the country’s requirements and ship back to the Philippines the extra production.
When news of the plan to plant rice in Papua New Guinea came out in the media, I was subjected to ridicule and called a fool by critics.
The negative public reaction and the lack of support even among key members of the Duterte Cabinet doused cold water on the program and it was soon shelved.
Today, as the country becomes largely dependent on imported rice with the price and sustainability of the supply becoming unpredictable, I am finally vindicated.
Six years after the PNG Rice Production Initiative was labeled as a “Foolish Idea,” it is now coming true.
With millions of hectares of valleys with flowing rivers, Papua New Guinea now looms as the Philippines hope that the next generation of Filipinos will have sufficient supply of rice.
#FoodSecurityIsPreparingForTheFuture!
(Photo taken by Roselyn Parillo last Wednesday shows PNG Prime Minister James Marape listening to my briefing on the Rice Project in Gabadi. The second photo shows the excitement in the media over the Rice Program in PNG and the last two photos then by Diane Garcia in 2018 showed me and Ambassador Tejano in the PAU Rice Demonstration Area.)