NARI Director General, Dr Nelson Simbiken, ICDF (Taiwan) Technical Assistant, Vitus Sarikisik, and NARI Seed Production Manager, Anton Beko, with 50 bags of foundation rice seed for dispatch to Kiunga.
This rice seed purchase is an initiative of the Member for North Fly for the District rice production program. 1.5 tonnes of the NARI 1 variety was provided. This is the first choice variety, producing good yields, and with resistance to Brown Plant Hopper, an important insect pest. Our partner in quality seed production, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF), also provided 500 kg of their popular TCS10 variety.
The 2 tonnes provided is sufficient seed to plant 40 ha paddy or 20 ha upland rice. A good feature of these varieties is that, when the crop is well cared for, good quality seed can be collected by farmers to replant in the following crop. NARI encourages the irrigated paddy production system to maximise yields and seed quality with less labour. The NARI rice program has released four varieties suited to both paddy and upland production in the warmer lowlands and two cold tolerant varieties for the highlands. Together with our colleagues from ICDF, we are also currently assessing more small machines which can help make PNG rice a reality for SMEs.
Contact naripng@nari.gov.pg for more information.
