Farmers get timely help

COVER STORY

Coffee farmers who have for years used stones to husk their coffee receive pulping machines at last to make production a lot more efficient.

By CORA MOABI
COFFEE farmers under the Henagaru Village Development Cooperative in the Okapa District of Eastern Highlands recently received much-needed coffee pulpers worth around K30,000 from the Coffee Industry Corporation’s Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (CIC-PPAP).
CIC-PPAP manager Potaisa Hombunaka was present with his technical officers to present the 69 hand coffee pulpers to the group in Henagaru Village in West Okapa LLG.
Under the project, the cost of pulpers was subsidised allowing the farmers to pay only 5 per cent of the price which is K22 (out of the K440 total cost of a pulper).
Hombunaka told the community in Henagaru that when free handouts were given, people took them for granted and did not look after the items.
“With this arrangement, you are going to be responsible and have a sense of ownership and care for the pulpers given to use in the years ahead.”
He said every coffee community he has visited told him of the need for coffee pulpers.
“Farmers still need coffee pulpers. This is the number one need of many farmers today. They pick only enough cherries during a harvest because they know they will use stones. If they pick all the coffee they have to leave it for two or three before pulping it.”
Hombunaka stressed that the project aimed to improve the livelihood of the people.
“With the pulpers, it will enable you to produce more quality coffee and in return, your way of living must change from improved prices as you market your quality coffee as an organised group.
“You must be able to replace kunai roofs with roofing iron, your children must be able to use solar lights at night to do their studies.”
Henagaru Village is in Ward 3 of Okapa West LLG in Okapa District. Other villages in the ward are Wayoepa and Amufi, located northeast of Goroka town. The total population of these villages is about 3,000.
Like many rural and remote areas, Henagaru has lacked basic services such as an aid post, school, good roads, water supply and technical agriculture training and extension services.
HVDC chairman Samson Jack said people had lived a life no different from what it was like before independence. Therefore, the cooperative was organised and registered in 2011 after a number of consultative meetings with the community.

He said since then the cooperative has engaged in various economic and livelihood activities to start improving their way of living in the village.
“It is growing from strength to strength and we are pleased that project partners such as SaeMaul Undong- South Korea and the Eastern Highlands government have greatly supported with close to K200,000 in the construction of a water supply system and the resource centre in Henagaru.
“Our first NGO partner since the launching of the cooperative was Oxfam PNG. They continue to assist us in our honey bee project and various capacity building trainings and we are very grateful for that.”
Jack added that CIC-PPAP has come to their aid with coffee pulpers which was a bonus to addressing quality coffee production.
The villagers’ co-operation and unity has been proven in the level of commitment and effort shown by the members in 2018 when they mobilised to erect the group’s resource centre in the village.
A seven-metre hill did not make the villagers give up. Five metres of that mound was dug with spades and bare hands whilst two metres was dug out with a backhoe, courtesy of the local MP, Saki Soloma.
On this dug-out land now stands the cooperative group’s newly-built resource centre. It is something that the group is very proud of as the building stands tall on the hilltop.
Kemon Tabuiye, Ward 3 councillor of Henagaru expressed gratitude for the presentation of coffee pulpers. “This is the first time for the community to see such assistance. On behalf of my people, I would like to thank CIC-PPAP for the assistance.”
Seventy-year old Tokona Kumo said the pain of using stones to pulp coffee cherries was over.
“With the pulpers given, you have removed stones from our hands to easily pulp our coffee. We have been using stones for a very long time and we now see change before our eyes. We request CIC, or Okapa DDA to purchase more coffee pulpers so that each household will have a coffee pulper. Right now, one coffee pulper will serve four to five households.”
To date the project has purchased and distributed under 8,000 coffee pulpers to farmer groups in Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, Enga, East Sepik, Madang, Morobe and East New Britain. Hombunaka said this was certainly a far cry from nearly 500,000 coffee-growing households of PNG.
“More support and assistance needs to be put towards addressing this very need of our farmers if we are to experience growth in the coffee industry. We must address farmers’ needs and not on assumptions. There is a mismatch with top-down and bottom-up planning for rural service deliveries.
Apart from coffee pulpers, rehabilitation of coffee economic roads remains top on the agenda,” Hombunaka said.
Coffee rehabilitation is a PNG Government project through the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and implemented by the CIC through its project management unit widely known as CIC-PPAP. It is financed by a loan facility from World Bank and IFAD with support funding from the Government.

• Cora Moabi is the media officer of the Coffee Industry Corporation.