Biosecurity Risks and impacts on Food

 
 
Papua New Guinea does not have an effective local quarantine when it comes to securing local plants and animals from invasive species.
Peter Mwayawa, a University of Papua New Guinea Open College lecturer, said there is not enough done to protect our cash crops, food crops and local fauna species within the country and as a result they are losing their value.
Presenting his paper on Biosecurity and impacts on food during the recent Waigani Seminar this year, Mwayawa said invasive species such as cocoa borer and coffee blight that disturbs proper growth of the plants results in less income for growers while simultaneously reducing food value for consumers.
“We do not know that pests are eating away our environment. The more the pests, the more food value decreases,” Said Mwayawa.
Mwayawa further explained that PNG’s local animals also face the same threat as plants; such as the recent bird flu related to chickens but there is no strategy developed to implement comprehensive risk management.
Mwayawa added that with the growing population of PNG and the parallel demand for food in the country, the importance of implementing comprehensive risk management program, monitoring, awareness’s, and responses to biosecurity is important.
He stressed that if the issue is not given much attention soon by the appropriate authorities than PNG would be waiting for results from international quarantine which would take weeks to arrive and by the time results arrive on our shores it would be too late.
Minister for Agriculture and Life Stock, Tommy Tomscol, who also attended the seminar agreed on the issue of food security in the country and highlighted that climate change has played a part in the issue.
Tomscol expressed dissatisfaction that Agriculture is the only sector in the country that does not have a legislation and he said he is looking forward to change this by proposing a new Agricultural Adjustment bill in parliament soon to cater for issues such as the above.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Real-time data app to relieve teachers

Teachers throughout the country will now be able to send real time data to their superiors where ever they are through an Application called, MyPNGSchool , which was launched at the state function room in Parliament. The app will seek to relive the challenges Department of Education has been experiencing in the past years in terms of school data. First Assistant Secretary, Curriculum and Standards, Dr. Titus Hatagen said many times provinces have been late in submitting data’s where some information had been inflated. He said the application will be accessible to teachers’ right in the rural areas where information will be uploaded and cross checked by inspectors before submitting it through to the department.   “The process involves four steps where firstly an SMS will be sent to teacher’s phones signaling them of data to be sent. Head teachers will fill in data on formatted templates that will be displayed in the phone. After that head teachers will send the data to...
Read more

Trial Gardasil Cancer Vaccination in Kimbe a Failure for Papua New Guinea

Image
Cervical cancer is a major threat to the female population of the country but the required vaccination to prevent the disease is yet to be implemented in the country. The trial Gardasil Cancer Vaccination conducted in West New Britain through World Health Organisation by Axious Healthcare Development was described as failed by the National Department of Health and the Special Parliamentary Committee hearing into the Health Service delivery in PNG. Rural Health Officer of Kendrian Hospital Dr. Yvonne Sapuri told the special parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the girls between the ages of 9-13 were supposed to receive three vaccinations each but on the third round, only 719 vaccinations were left. According to a report presented by Dr. Sapuri, the first vaccination was given to 17,256 girls while the second vaccination was given to 14, 872 but on the third round, there were not enough vaccination. Dr. sapuri said despite the cost of purchasing the vaccination...
Read more

K5.00 and K2.00 coins launched to commemorate University of Papua New Guinea’s Golden Jubilee Year

Image
To celebrate the 50 th Anniversary of the University of Papua New Guinea, Bank of Papua New Guinea has released commemorative K5.00 and K2.00 coins to mark the event. The commemorative coin was minted by the Royal Australian Mint which comes with its packaging and would be on sale. The K2.00 coin is Gold in colour while the K5.00 coin is Silver and both coins have the UPNG Golden Jubilee emblem minted onto it. The K2.00 coin will be sold for K25.00 while the K5.00 coin would be sold for K125.00. Speaking at the launching of the commemorative coins, Governor of Bank of PNG, Loi Bakani said University of Papua New Guinea has come a long way in terms of grooming a lot of Papua New Guineans who have contributed in developing the country. “We have been associated with other entities but with the University of Papua New Guinea to celebrate its Golden Jubilee; we at the bank of papua new guinea are honored to participate in this milestone event to present these coins,...
Read more