Farmer takes wife to personal viabilty training

Business

COFFEE farmer Sydney Leki brought his wife Zena to a personality viability training in Mt Hagen because he believes it will benefit them both.
Leki, 28, and Zena, 21, were among the coffee farmers in Western Highlands who attended.
Leki, who attended the first day of the training alone, said he brought his wife the next day because he believed it would benefit them both in their coffee farm.
He said he wanted to improve on his coffee production to benefit his young family.
Leki and Zena manage nearly 10 hectares of coffee trees at Pagkam village in the Mul-Baiyer district of Western Highlands.
The coffee trees were handed over to Leki by his father four years ago.
The training also focuses on spiritual growth.
“At this young age, I’m happy with this opportunity to learn new things. It will help me spiritually and mentality as well to look after my family,” Zena said.
According to the Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project, the training was for farmers in Western Highlands and Jiwaka who are improving their coffee gardens to increase their yield and income under Rilke Coffee Ltd, a lead partner of PPAP (coffee component) under Call 2.
Around 37 farmers and their families are attending the week-long training which ends tomorrow.
PPAP manager Potaisa Hombunaka in a statement said sustainable management of coffee earnings was a setback for many.
So the purpose of the PPAP-funded training was to make farmers realise their worth and potential.
The training will also help farmers to manage their coffee earnings with some savings to invest in their wellbeing.
Trainer Malangtan Eliesa said: “Savings is a foreign culture to many illiterate farmers still living in traditional kunai huts.
“This can be similarly said for some working class Papua New Guineans too.
“The effort here is to make one realise his or her best self, accept today’s changes and think about their aims and goals in life and to build on from there.”