Over 20,000 farmers get cocoa, vanilla training

MORE than 20,000 farmers in the Sepik region have been trained on value-chain development in cocoa and vanilla farming, with a focus on equal participation of women and youths.
This was made possible through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation-led (FAO) European Union Support to Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and Trade in Papua New Guinea (EU-Streit PNG) programme, a rural development programme that is supporting communities in 10 districts in East and West Sepik to revitalise existing economic opportunities.
While providing an update of the K340 million programme’s support to the local farmers, senior agricultural officer Dr Rabi Rasaily said the activities were based on production and distribution.
“We have production and distribution of cocoa clone seedlings (cocoa pod borer tolerant seedlings) to the farmers in the communities to rehabilitate their cocoa blocks and also establish nurseries so that the supply can be available at the farmer level,” he said.
“So what we are concentrating on is that these facilities should be established at the local level for easy access for the farmers.
“For capacity building, we have trained more than 20,000 lead farmers from different districts and communities combining all the 10 districts; six in East Sepik and four in West Sepik.”
Dr Rasaily also highlighted that they had worked closely with the office of the Sepik Regional Cocoa Board and also with the provincial division of agriculture and livestock on implementing their programmes.
“So what we encourage and focus on is that when we provide capacity building trainings, we emphasise the equal participation of women and youths,” he said.
“So that means close to 50 per cent of women and youths are participating in these trainings.”