Cooperative groups need support

Business

A FORMER Southern Highlands health inspector, who left his job to support coffee farmers, said registered cooperative groups in the province need assistance from the provincial government and district authorities.
Francis Wata, who heads the Undiri Coffee Investment Ltd (UCIL), said cooperative groups were receiving support only from the Productive Project in Agriculture project (PAPP).
Wata said the majority of people in the province were subsistence farmers and would work their land to grow the important cash crop if there was support.
“There has been next to no coffee extension work carried out over the years and many coffee plots have been replaced with food crops,” he said.
“This has happened because of a lack of support.”