As the country is preparing to celebrate its 48th Independence anniversary, a local cattle farmer living in Meporo village in the gulf province has raised his concerns about the agricultural developments and is questioning the Gulf Provincial authorities about all the funds that their Government has been acquiring every year.
He has called on the Provincial Services Improvement Programs (PSIP) Procurement committee in Gulf to bring development to them.
The purpose of the PSIP is to provide minimum service delivery standards through re-establishment of basic infrastructure and facilities under the following sectors: Infrastructure Support Services, Health Service Improvement, Education Service Support, Law and Justice Services, Economic Sector Support and Administration to provide minimum service delivery standards through re-establishment of basic infrastructure and facilities.
“The procurement committee must understand that we need development, and they must know what agriculture means to the people also.”
He continued to talk about how the people at the local level go unrecognized by the provincial government and is concerned that the money that the provincial government gets in their budget is not used to help develop the people of Gulf province and he claims that the country is only focused on renewable resources and there is no agricultural development.
“I have noticed that our Prime Minister is very focused on our natural renewable resources but what about our land?”
As a farmer, Mr. Koarufose owns the land he is living on, and he takes care of cattle which consists of goats, sheep and cows. There are others like him as well that are also suffering from the lack of agricultural development, and they are questioning why huge areas in Kerema remain untapped.
“I am interested in agriculture by using the land, but who is going to help me? I want agriculture development to come into Kerema.”
He stated that the local people of the Gulf, especially in Central Kerema, are yet to see changes and developments.
He hopes that the newly elected member for Kerema district, Thomas Opa, will be able to rescue the people of Kerema from this situation.
Mr. Koarufose also appealed for transparency from the Gulf Provincial Government when dealing with the PSIP funds that are given to help the people. He states that there are large areas of land in the Gulf that are yet to be developed.
“I’m asking the DDA procurement committee to go by law to get agriculture online.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Koarufose has been to the Provincial and District office to question why there is no development, but his attempts have led him to no avail as no one is willing to give him answers and he is often turned away.