Academic Highlights Difficulties in Reviving the Rice Industry

Dear Editor I would like to salute and thank Mr. Lesi for the constructive comments he made. However, what he has said is the whole picture I am coming from. Up in the brain means, we are what we think we are. Thus, if we accept defeat, then off-course we lost before we actually started! Yes the political will is very important. In PNG, Chinese government has introduced Dry Land Rice; through off-course research and it really cope with the conditions found in PNG with the calculations of the climatic variations. My message is we must not accept the negativities that come our way to suppress us. People are people and they will always want to serve their own interest. We have our own scientists (agriculturists) who can work with friends such as the people of Taiwan who have been with us in bad and good times. We cannot just bow out because someone is saying that we cannot do it. For goodness sake, we should help ourselves strengthen our economy rather than buying from outside and help grow economies of countries we buy from. Mr. Lesi you are right in all you commented on, but we must be positive and optimistic that we can do it ourselves rather than eating from someone else's pot. But thank you for realizing that the issue is important. God Bless Solomon Islands. Martin OTTO