Photo: Hon. Francis Maneke, Minister for Oil Palm
Best industry practices and certification standards, according to OIL Palm Minister Francis Maneke, are crucial for both the agriculture sector and the oil palm business.
Maneke said that it will make agriculture more sustainable and continue to boost the economy during a sector meeting on Monday in Port Moresby.
He complimented the government for designating oil palm, coffee, and cattle as the ministerial responsibilities for those particular agricultural products.
“For oil palm, it is a total revolution for this country – the standards, certifications in oil palm,” he said.
“The product is certified under the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), so we must sustain the best practices with respect to the certification standards.
“The certification of our products going out of the country must be an agenda from now onwards.
“We must have standard technology in the way we do business in agriculture.”
It is a top priority to revise the Oil Palm Industry Corporation Act (1992), and two bills are prepared to be introduced in Parliament.
“In the oil palm Industry, we must reduce poverty level because there is so much land, yet our people are still poor,” Maneke said.
“The industry is already 40 years old (but) there has never been any improvement in the poverty status of oil palm growers.
“There is no regulation that defines properly the management of the industry.
Reference: The National (15 September 2022). “Sustainability in agro sector vital”.
