Farmers learn about planning programmes

RURAL cocoa farmers in Morobe are coming up with their work plans for cocoa production in line with major economic project developments.
The farmers learnt about planning programmes and will train others in their cooperative society through a recent training in partnership between Wafi-Golpu joint venture and the Cocoa Board of PNG.
Lower Watut cooperative society secretary Patrick Jire said the developer of the Wafi-Golpu gold and copper project wanted to know their work plans, aligning with every phase of project development and would work closely with impacted communities.
“We are trying our best to make farmers be innovative,” he said.
“So they can know how to keep their own cocoa.”
Jire said the cooperative also trained farmers on keeping data.
“This training has enlightened us on a template by the Cocoa Board for capturing all necessary information,” he said.
“We’ve tried giving information previously, but most farmers were illiterate and lack knowledge about data keeping.”
Salamaua’s Wabubu cooperative chairman Mathias Geoctau said they had gained some meaningful insight on how to manage their cocoa production.