Duo having faith in cocoa

By LULU MARK
THE remote Karamui in Chimbu has been described as the new frontier for cocoa in Papua New Guinea but local Akope Sipa and wife Martha have been watching their pods fall to the ground and weeds sprouting in their farm.
The couple from Bomai continue to plant cocoa extending their farm with faith that help will come and road will reach their village.
The three local level governments (LLGs) of the Karamui-Nomane district are Salt, Nomane and Karamui.
Bomai is the 24th of the 27 wards in the Karamui LLG which has no road and the only means of transport is by plane.
“We heard that the price for cocoa is good and it is growing and bearing well in other parts of Karamui,” Sipa said.
Martha went to Karamui station which is three days walk from Bomai for a church gathering and brought back the cocoa seeds in 2018.
“We did the nursery and started planting the same year,” Sipa said.
“It started bearing last year.
“From our farm we supplied around 4,000 seeds to Jiwaka.
“We also give seeds to anyone in our community and neighbouring villages who wanted to grow cocoa.
“We cleared the land and planted more cocoa and now we have around 2,500 trees,” he said.
The couple received no training on growing and selling cocoa but have started farming from word of mouth that cocoa farming brings good income.
There is a need for a drying facility and training in the drying of the cocoa beans.
Drying not only preserves the beans but makes them lighter and therefore easier for transportation especially as the Bomai people carry bags of cocoa beans and walk to Karamui station or Kundiawa town.
The couple received K400 from the SME support funds from the district which they invested in the maintenance of their farm.
“There are two cocoa buyers at Karamui station,” Sipa said.
“We will spend two nights on the road and on the third day we will arrive there.
“Kundiawa town is even further away.
“We have an airstrip but chartered flights come in once in a while. We thought it was something that we could make money from but we realised we cannot but we are not losing hope.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done with cocoa out here.
“Quality cocoa is produced here in Bomai, if only it can be transported out.”
The couple are subsistence farmers and are committed to ensuring that their five children get educated. Their eldest daughter will be doing Grade 10 at the Drima Mary Immaculate Girls High School in Gumine.
The rest of the kids are in primary school. Their main source of income is from selling peanuts and pigs.
Back in Bomai the peanut is sold for 20 toea a bunch and everybody grows it so not a lot of money can be made.
To make more money, they take the peanuts to Kundiawa where they sell a bag for K150.
“We take four or five bags in a trip and if the boys help we can take up to 10 bags.
“From a trip we make between K700 and K1,000,” Sipa said.
He added that in a year the family would make three trips to town.