More funding for coffee and cocoa

Business, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday March 3rd, 2014

 PAPUA New Guinea’s coffee and cocoa growing programme has received an additional US$30 million (K96 million) funding from the World Bank.

The new money fell under the productive partnerships in agriculture project (PPAP), PNG’s single largest agriculture initiative, which will benefit up to 60,000 coffee and cocoa farmers and their families.

More than 85 % of the country’s population lived in rural areas and most depended on small-scale agriculture for their food and livelihood. 

Coffee and cocoa are two major cash crops, which provide critical income for more than half a million households.

PPAP aimed to work with smallholder farmers to double their yield and improve the quality of coffee and cocoa as a means to increase their incomes. 

World Bank PNG country manager Laura Bailey said: “PPAP is a hugely important initiative designed to help thousands of growers get higher earnings from their produce.

“It is also providing a critical boost to the coffee and cocoa industries which remain significant forces for the economy. In this sense, it is truly a win-win for agriculture in PNG.”

The country’s coffee and cocoa production have both declined over the past decade as a result of a range of factors, including: a lack of extension services in many areas; inadequate replanting, with many trees over 40 years old; and the devastating impact of cocoa pod borer (CPB). 

After the arrival of the pod borer, East New Britain, the country’s main cocoa producing province, saw an 80% drop in output between 2008 and 2012. 

Through the project, partnerships between farmers and NGOs, farmer group cooperatives or local businesses were selected and set up under a competitive process. 

Partnerships provided farmers with planting materials, extension services, access to certification schemes that brought higher prices and other services. 

In pod borer-affected areas, partnerships were providing training and demonstrations to help farmers manage the pest and hybrid plants that were more pod borer-resistant. 

Such measures had been shown to eliminate as much as 98% of infestation.

This year, PPAP would also start rehabilitating and improving maintenance of up to 200km rural roads to improve farmers’ access to markets in selected areas. 

PPAP, which was originally launched in 2010, aimed to double the present number of partnerships from 25 to 50.

With additional funding, it would increase services to participating farmers, including nutrition and literacy training and boost its support to women farmers. 

The project was also providing institutional support to the Cocoa Board and Coffee Industry Corporation to improve coordination of the industries and the sustainability of the project.

The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), a current donor to the project, is expected to provide further support. 

The project, which would now close in the 2019, is led by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, the Coffee Industry Corporation and Cocoa Board of PNG. 

PPAP is currently working in six provinces – East New Britain, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Jiwaka and Simbu – with possible expansion to other areas with the new funds.