Coffee project praised

A GOVERNMENT official has praised the efforts by the Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project to improve coffee production and quality.
Treasury department official Daniel Kopel said it was a successful project for the Government.
Kopel led a Government team which travelled with a World Bank implementation support mission to check coffee rehabilitation work being carried out by partners in the Highlands region. The project is financed through a Government loan from the World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development.
“When Government went to get the loan, we wanted the best practice model to deliver this project,” Kopel said.
“The success of this project led to additional funding from World Bank and IFAD.”
The project has been extended to June 2019 following additional financing.
It will include other coffee growing areas such as Enga, Southern Highlands, Morobe, Madang, East Sepik and East New Britain.
Kopel said the Government would like to see it as a model project where lessons learned could be institutionalised into other CIC programmes.
“The buck stops with you. The success of your project depends on you to improve the livelihood of your children to have a good living standard. That is the expected outcome of this project.”
World Bank representative Allan Oliver and IFAD official Dan Vadnjal were impressed with the information on rehabilitation activities shared by PPAP partners and the CIC at Goroka and Mt Hagen.
“There is lots of information on local approaches being used and you know best how to deliver the project,” Vadnjal said.