By JAMES KILA
Several thousand villagers living in the remote Wesan area bordering Goroka and Usino-Bundi districts of Eastern Highlands and Madang provinces are in desperate need for a road link to sell their cash crops.
A villager told The National in Goroka recently that Wesan despite being rich in natural resources and cash-crops, received very little or no attention at all from the Eastern Highland provincial Government and successive Members of Parliament over the years.
He said the place was blessed with coffee but farmers were unable to bring it to the market to sell because there was no road link to the area.
“Our coffee seeds were falling to the ground and eaten by birds and rats.
We cannot bring them to the market because there is no proper machines to process our coffee and the big problem is that there was no road,” village spokesman Inom Komehau said.
“I received a hand pulper coffee machine from the Mitega Coffee Farmers Cooperative of EHP recently. After getting the machine, with the villagers I had to walk over the mountain ranges taking about two days to reach our village,” he said.
He said the area was blessed because it was ideally situated on the valley with bridges and the gap between the main tributaries of the Ramu river.
The EH provincial commerce advisor, Lavert Ganino, who witnessed the presentation of the hand-pulper coffee machine to Komehau confirmed the plight of the remote people of Wesan after having visited the area.
Mr Ganino said officers from the EH provincial works unit must travel to the area to make assessment and recommend for road and bridge to be built to connect these remote farmers to markets in Goroka.
He said if the Government cannot reach out to assist the rural people, then co-operative societies can do it.
He also commended Mitega co-operative for their assistance to the rural people of Komehau and said his people are anticipating assistance from the newly elected MP for Goroka Thompson Harokaqveh, after his visit to the area during his election campaign trail.