cocoa farmers

Cocoa Board national manager for extension, Charles Koel, said they have signed a number of agreements with districts and provinces to provide support and deliver extension programs to those centres and their farmer groups.

This week, Cocoa Board is hosting a delegation from the Gulf Provincial Government and its administration with a number of lead cocoa farmers.

The Gulf provincial team also revised a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) that was established in 2018 with the Cocoa Board of PNG, but was not progressed until it expired.

A councillor in Salamaua LLG’s ward 17, in the Huon Gulf district, issued their plea once again during a recent meet with the Cocoa Board of PNG in Lae.

Morobe Province used to be ranked fifth in terms of cocoa production in the country.

The partnership provides training to women smallholder cocoa farmer as well as to provide first aid kits to treat minor injuries. USAID’s most recent contribution includes first aid kits worth over PGK5700 for 20 women cocoa farmers in Markham and Huon Gulf electorates in Morobe Province. 

Minister Mirisim visited the region of Bougainville on Monday (28th February 2022) to witness the re-opening of the Buin airstrip, which has been closed for the last 25 years after the 1997 Bougainville Crisis. There, he also presented the cheque on behalf of Prime Minister James Marape.

The K1 million national government funding, under the freight subsidy scheme, will go towards subsidising the freight cost of the cocoa farmers in Buin.

Cocoa farmer, Ray Kwingu worriedly said: “One of my kids left school because we could not pay the school fees. The school fees for another kid studying in secondary school is still to be paid, and we need to settle it soon.”

Ray, a 63-year-old father of five from the Varigu village in East Sepik Province, has less than 0.5 hectares of cocoa garden as his sole source of income. He and his wife, Jenny, work hard to make sure this cocoa garden with its 300 trees pays for their kids’ school fees, medical bills and nutritious food for their family.

The program is plus and is providing support and building the capacities to rehabilitate their already existing cocoa gardens and to establish and run sustainable and competitive cocoa cultivation in the Sepik region.

Rural women and youth groups in the Wosera and Maprik districts have been provided hands-on training, input, skills and supervision.

The EU-Funded STREIT PNG Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the program collaborating with the Foundation for Women in Agriculture Development.

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.

The symposium was a great opportunity for the farmers to showcase their produce to visiting delegates.  

Cocoa, a traditionally grown crop in the coastal areas, is now also grown in Karamui, which is known for growing coffee. 

Climate change and soil fertility is now seeing hybrid cocoa grow there.

Norman Mondo is a pioneer cocoa farmer from Karamui.

Seven years ago, Cocoa Board introduced the hybrid cocoa in Karamui.

He said due to climate and soil fertility, the pods from Karamui can have to 67 beans, compared to 35 in the coastal areas.

The gift is aimed to support their livelihood.

The Christmas gift came in form of a box of cocoa seeds from World Vision in Madang. These hybrid cocoa seeds are tolerant to the destructive insect pest called cocoa pod borer, which had devastated most of the cocoa trees in their area thus affecting their income earning opportunities.

Grants of K300,000 to K600,000 are available for genuine proposals to lift cocoa production and improve the quality of exports.

Hundreds of application forms have been distributed to farmers and farmer associations seeking to access grants in the CSF’s first call for proposals, which closes on September 17.

The K7 million-a-year grants scheme is an initiative of the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the Governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.