Farmers in Eastern Highlands Province have thanked the Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) and British American Tobacco (BAT PNG) for supporting innovative solar dryers to store bulb onions.
Five solar dryers were constructed at a cost of K200,000 in five different locations to help farmers store their onion produce before they are supplied to urban markets.
Each solar dryer cost K20,000.
Construction in all five locations are pilot projects, once completed will be officially launched next month.
The five sites are at Sogomi in Lower Bena, Kamaiufa, Mimanalo, in Goroka, Kabiufa Secondary School in Goroka, Nipuka in Lower Asaro, Daulo, and Keremu village, Upper Asaro, Daulo.
The beneficiaries are very excited that with the help of this solar smart technology, they will be able to produce high-quality bulb onions.
SK2 Linupa Farmers’ Cooperative which is comprised of 120 farmers is one of the recipient groups that will benefit from the solar dryer built at Sogomi village in the Lower Bena district.
Cooperative chairman Albert Ukaiya said the farmers are very excited and looking forward to making use of the facility.
“This is an excellent investment that is boosting our confidence to produce high-quality onions.
“Firstly, it will help address the challenge of curing time. Normally, it used to take two to three weeks to dry onions.
“But with this solar dryer, curing time is significantly cut down to two or three days. This is a huge relief and will prevent wastage and reduce costs.
“We now have a proper storage facility to effectively store onions. The solar dryer has a holding capacity of 1.2 tons of onions which is equivalent to 30 bags.
“We are over the moon. It is very thoughtful of FPDA and BAT PNG to help our farmers who have been struggling silently for a long time,” an elated Ukaiya said.
FPDA chief executive officer, Mark Worinu said BAT is a respectable corporate entity that has standing and integrity operating in 180 countries for 120 years.
“We are grateful for this investment support from BAT which really compliments our efforts to help empower our rural farmers.
“The solar dryers will shorten the curing days from 2-3 weeks to just 2-3 days which is amazing and cost-effective.
“The solar dryers will help our farmers to supply quality onions consistently to urban markets which will help cut down imports of bulb onions into the country. So this is a massive investment,” Worinu said.
BAT PNG General Manager, Vadim Maksimenko also said in support of these comments that the company is pleased to work with the Government through FPDA.
“We are proud to support the government’s development agenda of enabling our rural farmers through a credible partner like FPDA,” Maksimenko said.
“The first five farming communities are using the solar dryers to reduce wastage and increase the shelf life of bulb onions through a simple and effective curing process.
“FPDA will continue to support these communities to expand and commercialize their produce to better supply the domestic market.
“We look forward to the next phase for the fifteen dryers to be rolled out this year in selected communities that meet the criteria from FPDA.
“This is part of the partnership we signed which will have 20 dryers this year and a further 30 dryers next year with K1 million invested for rural bulb onion farmers.
“The vision is to empower farming communities who produce bulb onions to make the most of it and eventually supply the urban market and reduce reliance on imported onions which makes up 90 percent of bulb onion in retail outlets”.