Coconut farmers get easy access to information

COCONUT industry stakeholders can now access up-to-date information about the sector following the launching of the Kokonas Indastri Koporesen website.
The KIK is a government agency responsible for the sector.
Board chairman Kili Tambua said coconut had been an important source of income for PNG, especially those living along the coast.
“The board would like to thank the KIK management for making industry information and data accessible to the coconut farmers and other PNG and global coconut industry stakeholders,” he said.
“Copra has been an important source of income since the inception of the Copra Marketing Board bank in 1947. But the history goes back as far as 1884 when the crop was first introduced by the German missionaries who occupied the Gazelle Peninsula.”
Tambua said it was estimated that 310 million nuts worth around K155 million were being consumed domestically.
“In terms of coconut production, the following factors are important areas that need to be addressed – replanting of coconut stems using the coconut-based farming systems, developing effective measures containing and managing the Bogia coconut syndrome in Madang,” he said.
Tambua also said that one of the major impediments affecting the sector was infrastructure and cost subsidy schemes.