A local farmer from the Kurumbukari Plateau in Usino-Bundi district in Madang Province has proved that cocoa can grow well in that mild and cool mountainous area even on silky nickel/cobalt soil.
Albert Denguo is an industrious man who together with his wife are hard working when it comes to tilling the land. This is obvious when visitors to their area at the Enekuai relocation site admire plants the couple grow around their house and nearby gardens.
The Enekuai relocation site is one of two sites which landowners of the Ramu NiCo cobalt/mine were relocated to after mining development took place on the plateau.
Denguo really amazed officers from the former Cocoa Coconut Institute Madang Program Manager, Vincent Saleh during an awareness and fact-finding trip to Enekuai recently.
Saleh was surprised that Denguo is the only person in Enekuai who is involved in agriculture activities, while others from there only sit around and play cards and wait for compensation and land-use payments from the nickel/cobalt developer Ramu NiCo (MCC).
Albert who comes from the Nokomboi clan, one of the four main clans who own land in the Ramu NiCo project, says he believes in agriculture because after the minerals are depleted he would still fall-back to agriculture to sustain his living.
Albert’s elder brother late David Tigavu was the founding chairman of the Kurumbukari Landowners Association (LOA). His other sibling Mathew Denguo is currently the chairman of Kurumbukari LOA.
Albert’s backyard is very beautiful because he has cultivated all sorts of flowering plants around his house at the Enekuai relocation site on the Kurumbukari plateau.
Picture: Albert Denguo near one of his cocoa bearing trees at Enekuai.