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| Eileen Iambul the farmer who planted the rice |
By Fidelis Sukina
Papua New Guinea has adopted rice to be its staple food, and
non-other than Trukai has become synonymous with rice in Papua New Guinea
This is Trukais success story on the first harvest of their
pilot project in Amadi-Baga along the Hiritano Hi-way towards Gabadi in the
Kairuku Hiri Electorate.
The first harvest was made on Friday 12th June I
had the chance to witness it all. The four hectares of rice will weigh 12 tones
and worth close to K8, 000.
This is part of Trukai Rice’s Sustainable Development
program which assists farmers to grow their rice and also buy their rice.
Trukai’s concept is “Farmer owns the land and the Rice. While the company helps
them to grow their rice and buy their rice at world market price.
The project in Amadi-Baga was an idea which Eileen Iambul
who is a land owner with her Land group Amadi-Baga Land Group Inc, approached
Trukai and asked if the company could develop their vast savanna grassland into
rice field.
Prior to the project at Amadi-Baga, in 2014 Trukai through the
same program did a rice viability trial at Vekabu village with farmer Chief
Gabriel Maia Haino successfully harvesting half a ton of NARI 1 seeds. This seeds
from Vekabu was then supplied for planting at Amadi.
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| Chris Quiric Trukai Industries Limited Project Advisor driving Trukais rice harvester which will be used by Eileen and her family to harvest the rice |
“Trukai came looking for land they wanted land to grow rice and
I had a talk with the CEO Greg he was also interested because our land was
already registered and we offered him with four hectares. We had a rice company
that came in before Trukai but we didn’t agree on their terms and we didn’t
continue with them” Eileen said
Eileen said before being a farmer she did have a real job
but these days she is tending the rice fields.
“I was employed back in 2003 I use to work with steamships I
was working with the Managing Director and then I resigned and went with my
husband to Rabaul and then I came back now I am a rice farmer” Eileen said
Eileen said she always wanted to plant rice and it was a
grand opportunity for her and her family to engage in such a project.
“I always had this interest of being a farmer I always
wanted to live on a farm so when the opportunity came for me to plant rice I
just took it so when Trukai came in we agreed because we liked their policy
“Your Land Your Rice” we just pay for it we will be selling it back to trukai
and they will be taking it away As long as they are happy I am Happy” Eileen
said
Eileen said it was a though encounter trying to plant rice
but with the expertise and help from Trukai which proved to be a good help.
“We make mistakes but from the mistakes we correct
ourselves, it’s really hard work at the end of the day seeing the harvest at
this stage I feel I have achieved something You have to have a partnership with
God to achieve a lot and we did with this harvest”
“We don’t know how to
plant rice Trukai provided seedlings and seeders to plant the rice otherwise we
just provided land and food for our workers” Eileen said
Eileen has the support of her family and community and
employs 4 permanent workers to help around her rice field
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| Chris Quiric Project adviser (left) with Kairuku Hiri Memeber for Parliament Join Isoaimo |
“I have some casuals some are school children who come and
go but I have four permanent women working on the land and my three other
sisters which help me do the weeding”
She said others in the community have seen the success and
have given much praise to her; she has even donated some seedlings to others
“Actually I asked trukai to donate rice seedlings to
the church and they did there are others
who have seen it and they are interested but it’s up to them if they want to
plant rice or do other things”
Rice Project Officer for Central Nicodemus Bokame said the
project went very well and they faced little problem
“6 months before the project Eileen said they did not know
how to grow rice but with Trukai’s technical assistance, they did. We did not
face many challenges with weeding because our land preparation was very
effective. The field was weed, free right up until harvest. We had a big
challenge with wallaby invasion. But that was managed by planting a 5 meters
guard rows of rice to keep them from invading the rice field.”
He added that the 4ha field was purely rain fed which needed
no irrigation
“The 4ha field was a purely rain-fed field, meaning no form
of irrigation was used. Water source for the field came from the rain. We did a
lot of planning on that prior to planting, using local knowledge. Land
preparation was done towards the end of last year during the dry period.
Planting started on January during the wet season and ended in May. So the crop
survived the whole duration of the wet season” he said
Eileen said the 4 hectares was a success and said they would
offer another 100 hectares
“Because it’s successful I will give 100 hectares, after the
harvest we will re plow the field and put some nutrients plant peanuts and
continue to clean the land its Trukais rice cycle thought to us I am not an
expert on rice planting”
Nicodemus Bokame said introducing crop rotation helps the
soil to replenish its nitrogen.
“Introducing peanut during Crop rotation gives various
nutrients to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the
replenishment of nitrogen to the soil. Crop rotation also mitigates the
build-up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously
cropped, and can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating
deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants” Bokame said
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| Harvested grains on show for the public during the first harvest |
Bokame said NARI 1 variety was trialed on the 4ha field.
Seeds were sown using a precision seeder, also along with NARI 1 Trukai trialed
12 varieties. This includes 2 local varieties being NARI 1 and TCS-10
(Taiwanese Variety). The 12 varieties were trialed on a 1080meter square block.
The other ten varieties are from Trukai. (1).Trukai 12 (2) Trukai 3 (3)Trukai
19 (4)Trukai 30 (5)Trukai 21 (6)Trukai 26 (7)Trukai 28 (8)Trukai 14 (9) Trukai
21 (10)Trukai 20
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