Women and young people are among the cocoa farmers from across Bougainville who will benefit from grants that will increase cocoa production quantity, improve quality and strengthen market access.
Grants have been awarded to 25 cocoa farmer groups through the Bougainville Partnership’s Commodity Support Facility
The grants are worth between 300 to 500 thousand Kina.
Among those selected was Kukurina Business Group, which will use the grant to rehabilitate cocoa blocks, improve crop quality and increase levels of production from the group’s more than 25,000 cocoa trees.
25-year-old Jonathan Kopas leads the group.
He said as a young person, he happy that the community is working with him.
Mr Kopas they are already producing high volumes of cocoa, so they want to improve market access and improve cocoa quality and block maintenance.