APNGFA

 

Submission to AUSAID

Submission on Storable Food

A SUBMISSION ON AUSTRALIAN AID TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Committee: Mr T K Critchley AO CBE (Chairman), Vice Admiral D W Leach AC CBE LVO, Mr H D Anderson AO OBE, Colonel C H A East MBE, Mr D Marsh OBE, Colonel D M Ramsay DUA and Mr M C Morrison (Secretary)

Summary

Our comments are based on the premise that Papua New Guinea's basic need is aid to meet the shortage of skills and experience that has limited the nation since independence. We believe that this can be most effectively provided by education and on the job training.

Critical priorities are the overlapping fields of governance and law and order. Unless public administration is capable of delivering services to the people in a demanding and fragmented environment, and unless the police and the military forces can operate effectively with respect to the community, there is little prospect of achieving the Government's goals of reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development.

Corruption undermines good government. We should help Papua New Guinea develop strong mechanisms on a continuous basis at all levels of society, including the National Parliament. Prospects for a needed restructuring of the parliamentary system are poor but we should be prepared to encourage tactfully and help a decision to change to preferential voting system at elections.

Women's under-used potential deserves special mention including the relevance of the success of the Gameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Also identified is the value of extension services - a form of on the job training - in improving agricultural production. Priority targets should include more effective and cheaper food supply for Port Moresby, and developing a storable staple to help villagers to cope with emergencies and the changing social system.

Aid should serve Australian interests

Looking at Australia's strategic interests, our primary concern is to have strong stable united countries along our northern border. This does not mean that Australia should support Papua New Guinea regardless of cost, but it does mean that Papua New Guinea is of the highest priority in our aid programs.

There could be a temptation to link aid to Papua New Guinea with broader South Pacific islands strategy. It is noted, for example, that the Committee of Review on the Australian Overseas Aid Program links Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific Islands. Except in special circumstances, this could be a mistake. Because of its size, history and proximity to Australia, Papua New Guinea has a special importance to Australia and it should not be included with other South Pacific countries

Natural disasters and emergencies require special measures to provide relief. Owing to the severe drought, Papua New Guinea's needs have been great and Australia has had an obligation to meet them. But aid is not aid unless it goes to those genuinely in need. In view of the weakness in Papua New Guinea's ability to distribute relief, responsibility must fall heavily on the Australian Government to involve itself in distribution.

Australia's objective in providing aid is to assist developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. To succeed in this, aid basically takes two forms: firstly capital assistance where a country's financial resources are inadequate, and secondly, helping develop skills and experience where these are lacking.

Papua New Guinea with its natural resources need not be short of capital, although it does need help in organising its finances and Australia is sensibly cooperating closely with the programs of the World Bank and IMF in this.

On the other hand, Papua New Guinea has been seriously short of skilled and experienced people since the transfer of sovereignty in 1975 . Consequently the major objective of Australia's aid program should be directed to helping Papua New Guinea overcome this shortage. In the experience of the members of the Association, it can be effectively be done by education and on the job training.

Moving from budget support to programmed and project aid is in the best interests of Papua New Guinea but it is important that programmed and project aid are directed where possible to providing on the job training. Aid projects should be evaluated and contracts let with the objectives of improving skills and experience clearly in mind.

Large enterprises such as the major resource companies are providing most useful on the job training, but because of the weakness of government administration, they are required, in effect, to take over the responsibilities which should be the government's.

Australian aid understandably gives priority to health, education, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure and governance. Most critical for Papua New Guinea, in our view, are the overlapping fields of governance and law and order since the weakness in these can affect all the other fields. Indeed without improvement in government administration and law and order, the effectiveness of other aid to Papua New Guinea is in doubt. (Health problems which justifiably are evoking Australian aid are good examples of how seriously weak administration can exacerbate the difficulties.)

 

Governance

Clearly, Australia should look at ways of improving the government administration and particularly to where and how it can give on the job training. This should include seconding people to help in administration and, what could be more acceptable politically to Papua New Guinea , arranging for the exchange of administrators. Measures such as these are likely to have much more immediate and sustainable effect than short term administrative courses in the country.

Good governance can also be undermined by the acceptance of corruption. That Australia should reduce aid funds where there is "little commitment to good governance" has been recommended by the Committee of Review on the Australian Overseas Aid Program.

The "Skate Tapes" have heightened the perception of the venality of the Papua New Guinea political system and its politicians to a point where the Australian public could question the justification of the large aid bill. Although the opportunities for appropriate and effective action are limited, there are ways in which we may be able to help through our aid projects.

Firstly, we should look for ways of encouraging a reordering of the parliamentary system. At present the first past the post basis of parliamentary elections is a major problem since it results in candidates being elected with a remarkably small percentage of the total votes cast in their electorates, and in most candidates being able to rely on their clan support for election. A properly organised and disciplined party system would seem to be necessary, but unlikely to be achieved unless a preferential system of voting is introduced, ensuring wider support for successful candidates. Eventually a preferential system might also reduce the huge turnover of members at elections. The likely prospect of being a 'one termer' does not make for good governance.

Unfortunately the vested interests of a large proportion of the parliamentarians make a change to a preferential system unlikely. It is also clearly a highly delicate issue that could only be broached at government or diplomatic level. But we should encourage the change, making it clear that, if acceptable, Australian aid would be forthcoming in helping to devise a suitable limited system to meet the special needs of Papua New Guinea and in supporting the educational program required for its introduction, as well as providing such advice , staff and other assistance as the PNG Electoral Commission might require.

Secondly, we should support the organisations opposed to corruption. Mr Skate in defending himself against recent allegations has maintained an intention to set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The ICAC when set up, the Ombudsman's organisation which is hamstrung by lack of resources and the police will all need to be well funded and staffed if they are to operate effectively against corruption. Australia should seek to give teeth to these bodies through its aid. If Australia considers the direct provision of skilled and experienced people too sensitive, it should at least assist with the recruitment and payment of suitable expatriates. Papua New Guinea politicians could find it difficult to reject such help, particularly if they understand such rejection or improper use could jeopardize its whole aid program.

Law and Order

Although many problems are involved in law and order, unless there is effective law enforcement the problems cannot be solved. Hence special attention has to be given to the Defence Force and Police as the two bodies for maintaining security and law enforcement.

It was a sad acknowledgement of the problem that towards the end of last year the newly elected Papua New Guinea Governor General , speaking of the 'big challenges' ahead, included the admission that "discipline is appalling in our police force and army'.

There has been a major program to help develop the Papua New Guinea police force but it has been greatly weakened by our reluctance to provide officers (especially non-commissioned officers) for in-line positions. Although they would be short term, such appointments would almost certainly be opposed by the Papua New Guinea Police Association. But the contribution they could make in promoting discipline and giving on the job training would justify seeking to override the opposition. In the longer run advice from expatriates is likely to prove more acceptable when those giving it are also shouldering responsibility rather than operating outside the service.

Education

Education's vital importance, not only in providing skills but also in enhancing national unity in a complex and fragmented society, has been recognised by the Australian Government. In addition to supporting all forms of educational development in Papua New Guinea, special attention should continue to be given to schooling and training in Australia. This already has been clearly of great benefit in the development of the people involved.

On the other hand, our Association has reservations about the policy on vernacular schools. In the June 1997 issue of "Focus" it was stated there was an intention to teach the vernacular language for three years in elementary schools - " Ö a move expected to improve retention rates". Apparently some 150 vernacular languages would be taught in ten thousand schools by one sixteen thousand teachers with about $A16.5 million set aside for this.

For a number of reasons we doubt whether the policy would improve retention rates. For example, we understand that in Australian schools there is a high drop out rate for migrant children, not because they lack intelligence, but because in their formative years they did not learn English, and teachers cannot, or will not, spend enough time for them to catch up. Much more importantly, the policy is likely to impede the effort to achieve national unity and cope with the problems of fragmentation based on the PNG's clan culture.

Unfortunately early teaching in the vernacular seems likely to appeal to local politicians as an opportunity to enhance clan support on which, as previously mentioned, most successful elections are based. Consequently it could exacerbate the challenge of establishing a soundly based, and disciplined party system so essential for reducing parliamentary corruption.

In a country that has over seven hundred languages, teaching vernacular languages in the formative years of a child's life is likely to intensify tribalism.. When coupled with massive unemployment that is expected to continue, this could encourage tribal ghettos and a further breakdown of law and order

There is, however, a need for innovative education at the grass roots level. For example, efforts to encourage and assist in the development of agricultural projects and small businesses by 'micro financing' have often failed because the borrowers lack sophistication. Education is needed to provide an understanding of the basic fact that borrowing can only be justified if it can be expected to increase income beyond what is necessary to pay the loan.

Gender

The report that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade made to Parliament on Australia's Development Cooperation Program includes a section on gender and development. This is particularly appropriate for Papua New Guinea. Programs addressing the needs of women and seeking to give them enhanced opportunity are strongly endorsed. The Association believes that if these programs are successful they could make a significant contribution to better governance and a economic performance.

The success that Bangladesh banker Muhammad Yunus has achieved with his Grameen Bank lending almost exclusively to women provides an example relevant to Papua New Guinea. Grameen makes small loans averaging little over $US 100 for self employment and small business development. Women, who make up 94% of the borrowers, are preferred in the belief that, concerned with family values, they are more dependable than men whose main concern is likely to be self-enjoyment.

Last year 3.62 million loans were made totalling $US 380 million at the high interest rates of 20% for working capital and 8% for home loans. Recovery payments have been quoted at 98%, and last year the bank made $US 680,000 profit .Grameen's success has already provided a model for pilot projects in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the USA.

Extension Services in Agriculture

Extension Services are said to have deteriorated in recent years. If so, this is a most regrettable trend. In any event a special aid project has long been required to relieve Port Moresby's reliance on Australia for fruit and especially vegetables..

Areas adjacent are suitable for growing practically all the vegetables that Port Moresby needs but, because of unreliability of the local supplies and poor marketing, the bulk of the vegetables are flown in, principally from Australia. This has resulted in an expensive cost of living in the nation's capital - a disadvantage that has wider repercussions for the national economy and has so far defied various attempts to solve it.

Establishment of market gardens under the supervision of people skilled in production and marketing from countries such as Malaysia and Singapore should readily be able to solve the problem. As a nuclear aid project it could not only maintain a regular supply of fresh vegetables, but also help local villages produce them and, by offering to market the produce, encourage the villagers to do so. Such an aid project should not need a tariff to ensure success. Once firmly established, it could be retained as a state enterprise, commercialised or run as a cooperative according to the Government's wishes.

One of our members, whose working life has been spent as a field officer (District Commissioner) in Papua New Guinea has written the attached paper on the need to encourage the growing of a storable staple to enable village people to meet the challenges of emergencies such as the present drought and to cope with the changing social system.

Modern society has inevitably involved the breakdown of the village reciprocal society in which the people of Papua New Guinea lived in relative isolation. This emphasises the need to enhance the quality of life in the villages and give more security to sustain a growing proportion of dependent people. In turn it underlines the importance of encouraging the production of storable food to underpin the present dependence on perishables.

Our member makes a strong case for the soya bean which can be grown successfully in existing gardens with little labour required for planting, nurturing and harvesting. But he adds the proviso that attention must be given to the most suitable method of cooking to meet local tastes. In any presentation it would be most important to avoid giving the impression that village people are unaware of the need for storable foodstuffs. Instead, the objective should be to make it a peoples' project based as far as possible on the villagers' own initiative.

 

Addendum to the submission to AUSAID

Storable Food - Papua New Guinea

Traditionally the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) lived on vegetables such as sweet potato, yams, sago, sugar cane, manioc and a variety of fresh greens. To this was added all sorts of meat and marine products . For the most part they were a mixture of agriculturists and hunter - food gatherers. Their efforts to store food have been inadequate for the rapidly changing society in which they now exist and it is this factor that has to be overcome as the Number One priority.

Not only are their foods perishable but so too are their houses, clothing, weapons and life itself in terms of infant mortality and total life span.

While food shortages have always occurred in villages due to feasting, fighting, fires, drought, floods, sickness and so forth, the static, parochial, reciprocal nature was usually sufficient to tide them through these times in their hunting and food gathering role.

Today, over the greater part of the country, things are very different. The society of status is rapidly way to a society of class. The moneyless reciprocal society whose values were prestige and shame are being replaced by a sensate society where the money is king and the values are wealth and poverty.

Money as such is storable and enables people to move beyond the confines of the tribal group. Originally workers for money were target workers. They stayed at work long enough to earn an axe and a knife and a few baubles and beads then returned to the village. Now many workers are career workers and their disappearance from the village creates a great imbalance between the able bodied and dependant people. Men find the burden of demands for help from abandoned dependant people to be intolerable so they drift to the towns and mainly live a hand to mouth existence.

As a result of these things the quality of life is going out of the villages. There are of course exceptions where a balance has been struck, such as around Rabaul at least up to the last eruption, but for most villagers which are not so favourably situated there is a marked decline which is exacerbated when the pensionless, penniless, mature returns to the village where he is now too old to fend for himself and where the village stalwarts realise that he failed to contribute to the village during his working life. The reciprocal society does not operate in these situations. He returns to the village with no house, no garden, no pigs and very little goodwill. In any society in the world he would not be welcome and in PNG as the problem multiplies the resentment grows and the inability of the village to cope grows apace.

It is my contention that the nations of the world who seem to be in need of fairly basic constant help, born out of food shortages, are those who have not developed adequate food storage systems and this even more apparent in countries who have no stored grain or its equivalent. PNG is such a country and its problems have come to the fore with the present drought.

The problem is not caused by drought alone. I have lived in close with the people dating back to 1940. Undoubtedly the present situation is bad, but apart from supplying food there is not a great deal we can do in the short term. What is needed is a long term approach which will minimise the effects in the future. Solving the problem should directed to the problem of the reciprocal society and if the village people can be encouraged to adopt methods of storing food in a proper manner, particularly and its equivalent, it will go a long way to enabling the villagers to restore the quality of life and to have food for droughts, fire, floods, sickness, travel and to break the cycle of having to attend gardens three hundred days a year which helps keep them parochial and static.

Before going into detail of my proposal I would point out that the people of PNG have existed for centuries without steel and have devised systems of agriculture which have sustained them without destroying the land which we have done in many arts of Australia. Apart from a few small volcanic areas where was short, the normal forest rotation was about fifteen years. By this time the forests had regenerated and the saplings were big enough for house building and pig fences. Labour was minimised and all weeds, pests and diseases which had built up in the previous garden had disappeared. In addition the light vegetation was readily burnt. There was no erosion. There were some natural grass areas and some extended by fire for natural hunting purposes. All this got out of kilter with the introduction of steel. The destruction of the forests is leading to all sorts of problems such as increased erosion, introduced weeds, pests and diseases. Many of their best practices are being cast aside as their necessity for immediate survival presses on them.

The modern world has a wealth of knowledge on how to dry, smoke, cure, fumigate, refrigerate, salt, pickle, vacuum pack and pasteurize foods which would otherwise be perishable and if we apply the knowledge to the foods currently grown in PNG we are a step closer.

The villager of PNG did not attempt to confront nature head on. He worked on the basis of nudging it aside and working in harmony. In Australia we have all too often done the opposite and as a consequence have destroyed vast areas with rising water tables, salt, erosion, reduced convectional rainfall, cloven hoofed animals, blackberry, cactus, brackenfern, tea tree, feral animals, carp, fertilizer, insect sprays, overstocking etc. In fact it does not warrant the name of agriculture; it is Mining.

It is observable that in PNG there are very few grain producing crops and the grasses that occur naturally have grain of low nutriment. On the other hand nature has provided a great variety of the plant family Leguminosae and the people have long learnt to grow plants of this family - particularly beans. My view is that we should actively encourage the people to grow beans, in particular the soy bean which is readily storable, most nutritious, involves little labour, no machinery, no costs and can best be grown in conjunction with existing gardens on each individuals land. While it is not a grain it is something well within the capability of the ordinary villager. It will alleviate poverty on a sustainable basis and it will offset the effects of food shortages caused by disasters and it will have the greatest effect of enhancing the quality of life.

This brings me to the matter of real and felt needs. Imported rice along with tinned meat and fish are undoubtedly in the "felt" need class and there is a real need also for it is not possible to feed the ever-growing town dwellers on vegetables. People in the villages who from time to time have money from the sale of produce like rice because it is fashionable, it relieves them from the daily grind of vegetable gardening, it is easy to cook and it is storable even they do not look at it is something to be stored, in the full sense of the word.

Soya bean on the other hand is a real need, and while it has all the advantages over rice it will only become popular by getting a few astute people to grow the bean to prove that it improves their quality of life. To overcome this hurdle it is essential right from the outset that acceptable ways of cooking the bean so that it is palatable, be adopted and when it is to be cooked with other things they must, for the most part, be things grown by people such as tomatoes. To enlist the help of people worldwide for information on all the simple ways of processing the bean at the village level is also necessary. It is not much good talking about soya milk if the bean cannot be processed at the village level to produce an acceptable drink suited to children.

It appears strongly to me that a concerted effort to introduce soya bean meets a real need , it is in full accord with the objectives of the AusAid Program and in full accord the six principles set down in the Simons Report.

I do not for one moment suggest we go blindly into this. AICIR and the Department of Primary Industry in PNG would need to be involved with regard to the technical matters such as varieties, rate of seeding, , time of planting, time of harvest, best practice in relation to inter-planting in existing gardens, suitable storage receptacles, pests and diseases (if any), expected yields, moisture content in relation to optimum storage and other technical aspects which have to be passed onto growers.

On the sociological side there will be a need for field workers to explain the objectives and advantages . There will be a need for illustrated booklets, newspaper articles, radio talks, special TV programs, video tapes and all the modern technology to get the message over. One thing must not be overlooked is that all effort should be made to keep the project as the peoples idea. They already grow beans and now we are working together to make them storable and palatable. Some rewards for best efforts would be appropriate.

Soya bean has been grown successfully by some SDA missionaries for many years. It seems to be a well kept secret and does not appear to have developed beyond individual missionaries domestic use. I have not heard of anyone who has seen the need for storable food in the changing social life of the people, but perhaps the present drought may stir their thinking. The main objective should be to assist with day to day living in the villages and a secondary objective should be the long term storage for emergency purposes.

The Growing and Storage of Grain

The main attempts at growing grain in PNG have been with rice and maize. Both these plants grow very well in many parts of the country but the problem is to get rid of an excess of six percent of moisture which prevents them from being stored for any reasonable period of time. Kiln drying would overcome the problem but when talk of small scale village projects it does not take much to over capitalise with tools, husking and milling machines, power units, fuel and maintenance, special pig fences, storage facilities and so forth. The initial enthusiasm quickly withers.

Apart from moisture content and capitalisation problems, rice requires separate land to be prepared. While the villager will, in his enthusiasm, find the energy in his first year he also finds that he has to neglect his gardens and furthermore he is now indebted to the people that helped him.

At the end of the first year at harvest the odd self-seeding red rice grains fall to the ground and tend to regerminate with the next year's crop. Coloured grain, a hangover from the vitaminised rice of the war years, is unacceptable. Along with the second crop come the weeds which will now grow faster than the rice and a very great deal of reluctant hand labour is required to keep the crop clean.

By this time too, rats and mice frequently can and do, appear in plague proportions and they are followed by big increases in the snake population. In particular the Papuan Black Snake and the Taipan. If this in itself is not enough, the crop is subject to assault by wild ducks, wallabies, pigs and to top it off the crops frequently "lodges" as a result of heavy rain.

All in all, despite its popularity as a food , it is fraught with many technical problems which so far have proved beyond the capabilities of the people and in fact expatriate inputs have not come up with sufficient answers.

Despite this there is a real and felt need for storable food and I have no doubt that eventually the technical problems will be overcome and the life of the villager will be a lot better for it. In the meantime, however, in my mind that need must be filled with a foodstuff which is within the capability of the people physically, technically and financially. To my knowledge there is only one such foodstuff which meets these requirements, and that is soya bean.

Summary

The main points I list are:

1. There is a need for a storable staple to enable the village people to cope with the changing social system.

2. Many legumes grow naturally in PNG and soya bean is one such legume which is edible and has been proven to grow successfully.

3. Various grain crops can be grown but they pose many technical problems. Rice, particularly popular as a food and has been grown periodically in most areas for upwards of one hundred years . All attempts to date have succumbed to problems which emerge mainly in the second year of cultivation.

4. Soya bean for domestic use and emergency storage can be grown successfully in existing gardens along with new plantings of sweet potato. It is only when large scale production is undertaken that separate land must be prepared.

5. Very little labour is involved in planting, nurturing and harvesting. In fact it can all be done by the less able bodied members of a family. I think women will handle all aspects of production, thee men will handle all the storage aspects.

6. Very little cost is involved to the individual grower. The main cost will be in publishing the project and in the creation of suitable storage containers.

7. Each grower should use his own land.

8. A great deal of attention has to be given to the most suitable methods of cooking, for although rice has to be purchased from the trade store it has a big start on the largely unknown soya bean and all the reasons for growing the bean could be totally disregarded if the cooking does not provide food to suit the palate.

9. As far as possible it should be the people's project and outside help should avoid creating the impression that the village people are unaware of the need for storable foodstuff. If the initiative is taken from them the task will infinitely be harder to accomplish.

D R Marsh

21 November 1997

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