4-year-old learns farming skills

JUST by looking at four-year-old Udid Bilang, many will wonder how he can work in his father’s cocoa block.
This hard worker, who comes from Ganglau village, has developed a liking for cocoa since it was revived by Ramu NiCo (MCC) Management in the Basamuk area of Rai Coast district, Madang.
His father Mou Bilang owns a cocoa block about a kilometre from their village on the coast.
Ganglau village is located about 2km from the Basamuk refinery plant and locals from there are employed as casuals or permanent employees by Ramu NiCo (MCC) and other contractors at the project plant.
Udid is not old enough to go to an elementary school. He follows his parents and older brothers, sisters and his sisters-in-law clean his father’s cocoa block.
Udid has a small knife that he uses to cut grass when cleaning the garden.
“We don’t tell him to work but he likes to hold a grass knife to follow us to work,” his father said.
“We work from early morning until the afternoon and I make sure my cocoa block is neat and tidy and the trees are bearing good fruits.”
He said agriculture was the backbone of most rural people in PNG, and Ganglau villagers were no exception.
“I want Udid to learn agriculture at a very young age so that when he grows up he will still return to the land to work and earn a living if formal education cannot accept him later on in life,” Bilang said.
An interesting thing about Bilang is that his cocoa block is a model garden that the Ramu NiCo community affairs department uses when conducting field demonstrations for other farmers.