Farmers need to be alerted: FAO
BY MELISHA YAFOI
Having a strong and effective communication is vital to help farmers in times of disasters.
This was according to Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) PNG country office Head Ken Shimizu.
Mr Shimizu was one of the speakers at the National Emergency Telecommunication Plan (NET-P) workshop in Port Moresby earlier this week.
He said during last year’s earthquake in the highlands regions farmers were hit badly losing thousand of kina worth of food garden crops because they were not alerted of this catastrophe that
ruined their livelihoods.
“All of us have witnessed the emergency response that followed the highlands earthquake; I think we can now understand the importance of a strong NET-P in that kind of situation.
In my sector, food security and agriculture having a very strong NET-P can have many benefits.
If we can alert the farmers early to store a lot of food, protect their livestock and to also contain animal and plant diseases,”Mr Shimizu said.
He said the benefits of a strong NET-P cannot be understated and he is encouraged to see that there is going to be a plan set in place by NICTA and the Department of Communication and Information.
“Hopefully we would not be seeing too many disasters but unfortunately because of the impacts of climate change we are seeing an increase in the rise of some of these natural disasters.
We have the earthquake last year and there are predictions that there be some El Nino again affecting PNG also this year and that means that we may some increase in the number of flooding so I guess the best we can do is prepare for this natural disasters that seem to be happening more frequently than before,”Mr Shimizu said.
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