Morobe farmers travel to ENB for training

SIX farmers from Huon Gulf, Morobe, travelled at their own expenses to East New Britain to get training on cocoa farming.
The farmers from Sowara village on the border of Morobe and Oro travelled for eight hours by boat to Lae before flying to Kokopo.
They are currently at the Cocoa Board of PNG Tavilo research station in Gazelle undergoing training.
Farmer Manga Sam said there was no cocoa grown on their land but they were interested in starting.
“We are here to get the technical knowledge and skills of cocoa growing so that we can go back and grow cocoa,” Sam said.
“We are interested in cocoa because we believe it will bring change.”
Their only source of income is copra which does not have a good market.
Sam said they benefitted and learnt a lot from the week-long training at Tavilo, especially the cocoa block management.
He planned to teach other farmers what they had learnt.
Sowara village has 150 cocoa farmers. Some have already planted 40,000 clone hybrid cocoa seedlings and will get additional 10,000 seedlings to replace the once that did not grow well.
Cocoa Board chief executive officer Boto Gaupu said the farmers were keen to start a cocoa nursery and planting.
Gaupu said there was a lot of interest in cocoa farming.