The Rural Voice, 1988-12, Page 32H
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Keeping them down on the Farm
ow do you keep young people
down on the farm? That has
been the lament in Canada.
Now it s a cry in the Third World,
where increasing numbers of young
people with some education are aban-
doning rural areas and heading for the
cities where they expect to find high -
paying jobs. They are often disap-
pointed. In most Third World urban
areas, the unemployment rate is high
and youth often turn to crime as a
source of income.
CUSO, a Canadian international
development organization, has for
several years been involved in teach-
ing agricultural skills to schoolchil-
dren in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
They learn how to earn a better living
in their villages and are encouraged to
consider agriculture, whether subsis-
tence or cash -cropping, as viable,
respectable, and rewarding work. And
there are other spin-offs: the children
and their families eat better, parents
are becoming involved and learning
new ways to earn income from their
land, and the status of agriculture is
being raised within the community.
Sixteen pilot schools are involved.
CUSO agriculturalist Don
Archibald, from British Columbia, is
employed by the PNG education de-
partment in Enga Province as a com-
munity school garden co-ordinator.
Archibald, 45, who left a 300 -acre
"hobby -farm," which he co-owns, to
take the CUSO posting in PNG's
highlands, has a background in con-
struction and adult education. His
farm background is being put to good
use in PNG, along with his teaching
skills. He has introduced sheep, goats,
chickens, and ducks to the highland
villages, new crops for feed, vege-
tables for community gardens, and has
encouraged teachers to pass on good
gardening practices.
Until 20 years ago, the only
domestic animal in Enga was the pig.
Even today, the pig population in the
province is estimated to equal the
human population. Pigs compete with
humans for food and the animals are
CUSO worker
Don Archibald
discusses planting
with a Papua
New Guinean
villager.
also destructive, depleting the topsoil
by rooting on the steep slopes. Lamb
and mutton are eaten in the province
but until recently the meat was impor-
ted from New Zealand. Now villagers
are raising their own supply.
Archibald believes that the key to
introducing livestock and upgrading
gardening in PNG is the school.
Parents are encouraged to help choose
the crops and livestock to be raised at
the school, and the school is becoming
a resource to the entire community as
new ideas rub off on the parents.
During training sessions for teachers
at the pilot schools, Archibald showed
them how to build a chicken house
from bush materials, how to care for
sheep, and how to use manure and
compost to improve soil fertility.
"Although the program received no
special funding in the beginning, it has
proved to be a remarkable success in
extending agricultural knowledge to
the village level," he says.
With $1,000 provided by CUSO,
Archibald has set up a revolving loan
30 THE RURAL VOICE