Cocoa, copra put pressure on food system: Organisation

CASH crops like cocoa and copra are putting stress on the food systems and there should be a balance between them, according to an agriculture organisation.
Bougainville Youth in Agriculture president Ian Getsi Viore said this during the second sub-regional food system summit dialogue in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said that encouraging downstream processing of local produce could be good for business but it also came at a cost.
He said his association had shipped taro to Port Moresby in a partnership with City Pharmacy Ltd.
He said the challenge was to provide adequate supply and to ensure it was of a certain standard.
But focusing on one crop for commercial purposes also had its drawbacks.
“The thing is that we are also getting stressed within agriculture itself, cash cropping is actually pushing our gardens further away, people are planting cocoa and coconut and pushing garden land further away or making them non-existent,” he said.
“Some of the communities have used up all the land, planting coconut and cocoa, so that is a stress we put on our food system as money is everything now.”
He said downstream processing would encourage people to do gardening.
“We are trying to promote downstream processing, taro flour, turmeric powder, ginger powder, and we are marketing this into Port Moresby.”