To The Innocent Israeli People Brought to PNG To Create Innovative Agriculture Industrial Complex
Our Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll has said many times the importance of our small scale farmers in PNG agriculture. Women especially, but also men, they are backbones in our country with roots in agriculture going back 10 thousands years ago.
Our village farmers have been supplemented for many years by resident companies here for the long haul. Some have their heart in the country such as Zenag Farms in Morobe Province which produces chickens and eggs. This company was started by Mick Leahy, one of the 3 whiteman prospectors who ventured into the interior of our country in the early 1930s and discovered the existence of our highlands peoples, the news of which went around the world. Zenag company is owned by the son of Mick Leahy who is here as a citizen. Those long term companies involved in PNG agriculture have struggled the last few years because our government does not restrict cheap Chinese and Indonesian foods flooding into PNG and forcing the Made In PNG equivalents out of the picture.
Village men and women who grow the food of this country are the majority of our population yet few make much money. Israeli friends, those of you who have come to PNG to set up Innovative Agriculture Industry in our country, I hope you visit one of the many fresh produce markets in our country to see what our village farmers can produce. Goroka and Hagen are the best but you will find highlands and lowlands produce together in impressive variety in Lae and Moresby markets. These are the places where the little people make their money after working the gardens to grow food for all and they try so hard to produce good quality produce. Because they work their own land and grow their gardens without need of expensive infrastructure, they can survive the high transport costs to bring food throughout the country. The little money they make is magnified when they sell in the open markets when they can sell direct to the consumer. Selling to supermarkets means a middleman will take more of their money. That is why the PNG government should discourage fresh
produce sales in supermarkets and make the open produce markets more attractive for people to by their food.
Israeli friends, I understand you must make a living just like all of us but I must still say that it is sad to see your participation in agriculture enterprises that will badly hurt those who are born of this land. Firstly if you believe that you are helping our country by setting up your Innovative Agriculture Industry in my country please step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes you are bringing Innovative Agriculture Industrial Complex to PNG but this technology is not yet appropriate for majority farmers in this country. Our farmers do not have the capital to invest in such high technology for one thing.
The problem your Innovative Agriculture Industrial Complex bring to the little people of PNG is that it is large scale which means you can sell at a lower price than our farmers. Unlike your country where most people live in the city, most PNGs live in rural areas. The land is our life, we must find ways to make money from that land to pay school fees. When you outcompete us it destroys lives.
My friends from Israel, you are creating large infrastructure to compete against the little people. I have read that in these large greenhouses that your company LR Group has built, you are growing tomatoes, capsicum and lettuce. You say these produce are not being grown by local farmers but that is false statement and you will see it so if you go to the markets or ask farmers themselves who are growing these foods in there highland gardens. Only the lettuce is not grown so much but that is like so much of what we grow today. Each new crop introduced to the farmers of PNG started small and with proper attention, spread until it was grown by many people.
The mining and LNG companies feed many thousands of workers and those living away from the royalty areas but still reasonable distances from these projects were hoping to use their land to make money selling their fresh produce to these companies. But your LR Group is saying that you will be supplying these companies. You will be pushing the little people out.
Israel is the land of Jesus and a place most of us PNGs worship. That is why it hurts to see what people from Israel coming to our country are doing to the little farmers of this country. Everywhere in the world that I have heard, it is the little farmer pushed out of business when the larger agriculture businesses appear.
I have read in recent news that your Innovative Agro Industrial Complex was set up with government money, including from Western Highlands government of Pais Wingti and K20 million given by Anderson Agiru. I do not understand why our governments would be giving money to a foreign company instead of using that money directly to help the farmers of this country. Yes we need foreign investment and technical assistance but not in areas where our people are already active and successful. Our governments should be investing in improving the markets and making them attractive for all people in the cities to go and buy their produce instead of the supermarket. That will put more money into the hands of our village people. Our governments should never be investing in projects that will destroy opportunities for our simple farmers.
My friends from Israel, please think about what you are part of in destroying livlihoods that were here before you came. Think about the good teachings of Jesus Christ. Then go to our markets, find out what the little farmers of this country going the cucumber, tomatoes and capsicum are earning. Compare that against your own paycheque and think again about what you are doing to us. Israeli people should be our friends and not our destroyers. May God Be With You In Opening Your Mind To These Truths.
