PAPUA New Guinea had an excellent opportunity to see if its rural farmers produce enough food for the country to be self-sufficient in food.
Self-sufficiency or food security has been the policy priority of many administrations but very few have advanced to cover what the rural majority is producing, waiting instead for mechanised farming on large estates to tip the scales.
In taking that path, governments have failed to see the mountain standing in their path. Some 85 per cent of the population is rural based and for the most part, self-sufficient in food. Many of these substance agriculturalists have now turned their attention and gardens to producing more than for their immediate family needs – the automatic hand of the cash economy can be seen at play here.
More kaukau, banana, taro, sugar cane and yams are grown than previously. Much of these are sold at local markets or given away in ceremonies, to important community obligations such as to schools, churches and health facilities.
If the farmers were encouraged to produce more in order to store food away for a period of drought or famine, they would do so.
Obviously, certain foods like vegetables are perishable unless refrigerated and in rural communities, that is a luxury that is just not there.
But yams, two potatoes, taro, sago, certain nuts, and salted dried meat can last weeks and months.
Rice is grown in great quantities throughout the country and these productions can be doubled or tripled and the produce stored away for when they are most needed.
Carefully preserving these foods for long periods using traditional and/or modern ways of preserving these foods without the expense of refrigeration can work wonders.
This is precisely what National Research Institute researchers are saying as the country huddles down to wait for an anticipated pronounced El Nino weather event.
An El Nino climate event occurs naturally when changing or weakening trade winds cause a warming of the sea surface temperatures.
This disrupts global weather patterns and leads to extreme droughts, heavy rainfall and shifting temperatures worldwide.
The last severe event hit PNG in 1997/1998, devastating food crops, causing bush fires and drying up water sources.
NRI researcher Evelyn Malala said food banks ensure food is preserved and a constant supply of food is available while awaiting reliefs.
While this might be the community strategy, the national government strategy ought to be different and long term.
For far too long, the government has turned to international sources for relief in all the natural disasters that has struck it.
It is high time the government plans for its own citizens and meets emergencies on its own strength.
An excellent time to have tested whether or not this country was self-sufficient in local food production was when the Covid 19 pandemic hit.
As the virus was of foreign origin at the start, shutting down international borders was okay but there was no immediate need to shut local borders or movement.
This was the moment to, with government subsidy, move locally produced food from all parts of the country to other parts.
Get Sepik and Gulf sago to parts that use sago but do not grow them in sufficient numbers, especially cities and towns. Move yam from Trobriand yam houses in Milne Bay to other parts of the country.
Likewise, kaukau and banana and vegetables from the highlands to the low lands and coconut, fish and taro into the highlands.
It would have placed money in the hands of ordinary Papua New Guineans and the country would have seen exchange and excitement like rarely seen before.
And the administration would have known that PNG has it all, that it has food security, only that it needs to mobilise itself more.
And that can still be done today in preparation for a drought. With prior planning and logistics, PNG can weather this dry spell as it has done so many others in years past.
