A rice farmer group in the fringes of Lae City recently harvested their biggest crop, estimated at 2.5 tonnes per hectare.
In their 8th year of growing the crop, the Ucapu Rice Farmer Group’s success is attributed to NARI and Taiwan Technical Mission’s joint partnership in the production and distribution of good quality rice seed and technical support.
Taiwan Technical Mission’s Rice Specialist Fabio Liu was pleased saying, “For upland rice farming, seeds
from this harvest look very healthy and has good quality that is almost close to paddy rice seed quality.”
Members of the group were trained on best rice cultivation practices, importance of weed management, fertilizer application and introduction of a new planting pattern in recent years.
Mr Liu was impressed and said that it is interesting to learn that most of the rice is free from pests and disease.
“This is a good indication of good field management,” he added.
An indoor seed inspection will be conducted to verify the quality of seeds being produced. Ucapu rice farm is looking forward to the continued partnership with NARI and TTM to improve seed production.
They have developed a funding strategy to continue farming rice and make seeds available to interested farmers.
