ICT “know-how” to boost AgriBusiness and AgriTourism in PNG

“I believe the key to economic and sustainable development lies in empowering the people. Papua New Guineans and Pacific Islanders are agriculturists by nature, we have sustained ourselves with food gardens for centuries. If we could teach our people to embrace the business culture and commercialising our agriculture sector, simple farms and farmers become big businesses that reap big profits. We have the land, we have the farmers, we just need the know-how. “ This was Leanne Jorari’s statement as she introduced herself on the mailing list of the online Social Reporters for the Pacific Community AgriTourism Week. Leanne, from Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a Television Producer and Business reporter for PNG’s television station, EMTV and is participating as a online social reporter with 120 other people for the 5 days’ event being held in Nadi, Fiji from 29 June to 03 July 2015.

Roughly 85% of PNG’s population live in the rural areas of the country, of which 80% are engaged in agricultural activities which involve mainly subsistence farming and any economic activity involves selling produce at the local markets at a small scale to support living expenses. Agribusiness is mostly common among the main cash crop industry including Oil Palm, Cocoa and Coffee where ICT is used more extensively in the well-established commercial crops. Many smallholder farmers have access to mobile phones, used for SMS and calls, mainly to communicate with family but used at a minimum for business. Facebook is the most popular social media platform. A Facebook Group, Local Market PNG, allows individuals to promote items for sale but even then it is not used much by our Agri-Entrepreneurs. Even with the introduction of mobile services including bulk-SMS marketing and mobile banking services, many still choose the old way of standing in line at the banks, meeting buyers at local markets, and doing their transactions. The use of ICT within the sector and specifically for agri-business/tourism is still at a very infant stage.

See more via CTA's blog: http://blogs.cta.int/2015/06/27/ict-know-boost-agribusiness-agritourism-png/