K1 million to help develop cocoa industry in Central

By DANIEL EALEDONA
THE Central government aims to improve the standard of living and increase economic opportunities for its people of Central, and has allocated K1 million to develop the cocoa industry.
Central Governor Rufina Peter attended the launching of the Cooperative Group cocoa project nursery in the Kibobogoro ward in Rigo yesterday.
“The community welcomes the idea of growing cocoa to increase the revenue brought in for the Kibobogoro people,” she said.
“The Central government is concentrating on developing agriculture and tourism.
“On cocoa, we have allocated K1 million.
“We gave K1.5 million for coffee, and allocated funds too for rubber.”
Cocoa Board chief executive officer Jesse Anjen encouraged young people to be involved in the cocoa industry project.
He said while the cocoa board had been around for a while, cocoa was yet to be established in the Southern region.
“That is why a Southern region cocoa office was opened in Port Moresby last week to drive the development of cocoa.
“The land is fertile to plant cocoa. All the community needs is to develop nurseries and have training on cocoa farming which the board will provide.
“We are slowly building the capacity of cocoa in Central, with coordination officers in Abau, Rigo and Hiri-Koiari.
“The project’s private sector partner in the district had supported the project with 10,000 nursery cocoa seeds,” he said.