Coffee group hails government’s road plans

THE industry coordination committee overseeing Productive Partnerships in Agricultural Project (PPAP) has acknowledged Government for an invitation to identify coffee economic roads for consideration in the 2018-2022 third medium-term development (MTD) plan.
The invitation was given during the national planning consultative summit in Lae on March 20-22.
Chairman Ian Mopafi said the lack of roads have been the main obstacle against efforts to increase coffee production targets set by the Government. Rural airstrips are also closing down where coffee use to be transported by air.
An example is the recent closing down of Mengino airstrip in Mt Crater, Lufa, Eastern Highlands.
Mopafi, who is also a coffee buyer and businessman, said the consequence was that many growers had neglected their coffee gardens.
The PPAP coffee component has identified six roads. These roads will connect the hinterland of some provinces like the 50km Lufa-Unavi-Gouno Road in Eastern Highlands.
This link will service more than 50,000 growers in Crater Mountain, a tri-border area for Eastern Highlands, Chimbu and Gulf.
The Crater Mountain area is accessible only by single-engined Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and Adventist Aviation Services (AAS) planes from Goroka.
Coffee rehabilitation is a Department of Agriculture and Livestock initiative supported by the World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development through loan financing. It is implemented by the Coffee Industry Corporation.