Focus on linking farmers to markets, says official

EXTENSION services must be innovative and creative with a focus on helping farmers to find and establish markets to sell their produce, a coffee official says.
Coffee Industry Corporation productive partnerships in agriculture project manager Potaisa Hombunaka said the missing link in extension services was for farmers to establish markets.
Hombunaka was addressing an international agriculture forum at the University of Goroka with the theme “Addressing farmer needs now and into the future”.
Hombunaka said extension services continued to focus on the production aspect of agriculture for years which farmers were already familiar with.
He said what a farmer needed now was to know how to find a market to sell the produce at a better price.
“Extension services must be market-driven. Bring the market to the doorsteps of farmers. Let us become creative and begin training our farmers about marketing and walk back to production aspect of agriculture. We must become innovative. Do not do things the conventional way.”
Hombunaka also suggested a public-private sector partnership as the way to effectively deliver extension services to farmers in rural communities.
He was referring to the modality employed by Coffee Industry Corporation productive partnerships in agriculture project teaming up with 36 partners to deliver extension services to rural farmers in 10 coffee growing provinces.