PLANTATIONS in the country should be owned by Papua New Guineans to sustain the agriculture sector, says Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon.
Simon said this while addressing participants of the agriculture update during the Speaker’s Summit on Wednesday.
“In order to sustain agriculture in the country, we have to come up with a concept were landowners own the plantations,” he said.
“Then you can have the big corporate entities work with them, supply them with the necessary tools, finance and the materials. “This will also help solve the issue of land disputes between locals and corporate organisations.”
Simon said the people, especially the younger generation, needed to be given incentives in order to encourage them to have an active participation in the agriculture sector to sustain themselves going forward.
“If we don’t get this right, 20 years from now the agriculture sector will go down. We have to convince our children that there is money and a future in agriculture.”
“If we don’t do that than I cannot see them going into agriculture.”
