Authorities discuss coffee borer threat with farmers

OFFICIALS of the Coffee Industry Corporation and the National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority met farmers in Lae yesterday to discuss the menace of the coffee berry borer.
The borer was detected by a coffee farmer in Jiwaka in February and brought it to the attention of the CIC and Naqia.
Morobe is second to Eastern Highlands in the volume of coffee produced. CIC principle entomologist Dr Nelson Simbiken said they detected the borer in Jiwaka and Eastern Highlands (Asaro, Kamiliki).
He said the areas were less than one per cent of the total coffee growing area in the country.
The CIC is establishing and doing containment exercise in the rehabilitation of coffee gardens in coffee growing areas near the affected areas.
Simbiken said the two containment exercises were already implemented with a third containment exercise to be on the restriction of the movement of coffee from the diseased area to the clean areas. A delimiting survey is currently been carried out by the CIC, Naqia and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock.
“CIC is in control and had been working with collaborators in Indonesia and Cabi BioScience (UK). This has given us the confidence that we can manage and control CBB. We have learned from other countries on CBB so we are informing our stakeholders not to panic,” Simbiken said.