Milne Bay Province has lacked large scale vegetable production in the past until the introduction of fresh produce farming skills and technology by Fresh Produce Development Corporation (FPDC), says local farmer Maxwell Paulus
Paulus is a model farmer trialing Chinese cabbage, watermelon, round onion, corn and a few other crops and has been an extension officer for trial rice farming until recently.
“I switched to growing crops after fetching K1500 on a small piece of land where we trialed vegetable farming,” he said.
Today Mr Paulus has engaged 12 farmers in the Huhu LLG area where he believes more locals would convert their time into farming.
He said rice farming and village oil palm has been occupying most of their time but vegetable farming has now captivated people who have plans to commit their land to farming vegetables.
He said people in Milne Bay had a perception that introduced vegetables such as round onions, chinese cabbage and sweet corn could not be grown in the province but thanks to FPDC for introducing the crops.
FPDC board member Greg Barry said after conducting a brief market assessment in Alotau, it was evident that Alotau main market and super markets were selling fresh produce at a very high price prompting a need for local produce and the onus was now on the farmers.
“Because fresh produce were shipped in from other centres, prices were quite high compared to other shops and markets,” he said.