Coffee industry receives K1m funding aid

THE productive partnerships in agriculture project (PPAP)is helping the Coffee Industry Corporation with K1 million to eradicate the coffee berry borer pest.
Project manager Potaisa Hombunaka said  the money would  be used to buy tools and materials such as bow saws, bush knives, files, spades, secateurs or scissors, knapsacks and weedicides to clean and prune infested coffee gardens.
The CBB traps and posters will be funded under this commitment.
“The lack of immediate attention by the government to release K20 million to the Coffee Industry Corporation to contain the spread of the CBB pest is very disappointing,” he said.
“Hence, the intervention by PPAP coffee is crucial to help the CBB team attend to these infested gardens quickly before more pests spread to other gardens.”
Hombunaka was accompanied by a team of PPAP officers to see first-hand the impact of the CBB pest on coffee gardens in Asaro, Eastern Highlands.
The officers also talked to the farmers and CBB team headed by Dr Mark Kenny, the general manager of the CIC’s research and growers service division.
Kenny said the officers attended to only 18 hectares of infested gardens with clear pruning and setting up of CBB traps. The total infested area in Asaro is 186ha.