Lead Partners of coffee rehabilitation work will operate under new stringent guidelines, says Potaisa Hombunaka, project manager for Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP).
Hombunaka said the new guidelines will ensure Lead Partners report accurately their activities including use of finance and procurement of items under their work plans to improve farming practices, increase coffee production and quality hence more income for growers.
The improved guidelines were explained in a meeting to potential partners under call 4 on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday April 27 at Bird of Paradise Hotel, Goroka.
These changes follows lessons learned from call 1 and 2 where Lead Partners did not report accurately their activities including use of finance.
Some problems include ineligible expenditures where spending was outside of agreed purposes, quarterly reports didn’t make sense and PPAP or coffee rehabilitation policies were not understood
Hombunaka also announced that Lead Partners who have been short-listed under call 4 proposals will have to submit a business plan preferably by May 2016 for further screening process.
Hombunaka wants new LPs to begin work immediately given the short time left in the coffee rehabilitation work. The project has been extended from June 2016 to June 2019 following additional financing. It will include other coffee growing areas or provinces like Enga, Southern Highlands, Morobe, Madang, East Sepik and East New Britain.
“We have only three years left as of June this year to implement quickly because it takes exactly three years for new coffee trees to bear fruits.
“This is why I’m totally upfront that you must have the capacity for a productive partnership to grow the industry.
“This means you come with something and we come with something. Don’t come with nothing and expect to begin with PPAP funding,” Hombunaka emphasised.
The coffee rehabilitation work is financed by a loan facility from World Bank IDA and IFAD with counter-funding from PNG Government. Hence the project follows a stringent World Bank procurement process and urges the Lead Partners to do likewise.
“This is why we brought you here to understand the process and procedures to use the money accordingly.
“The end result is we rehabilitate the industry with increase coffee yield and changes to the lives of our growers or farmers,” said Hombunaka.
The new PPAP manager who took office in September 2015 also emphasized that the best management practices by PPAP and its Lead Partners is for Coffee Industry Cooperation to take over for the sustainability of the industry.
“This is a CIC project. We want to leave behind a life document which CIC can take on into the future for the good of the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea.”
The PPAP is a coffee rehabilitation initiative of Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) funded by a loan facility from World Bank IDA (International Development Association) and IFAD (International Fund for Agriculture Development) with counter-funding from GoPNG.