Please help me save my apples!

Weekender

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
I bumped into Adonis Guiye, an apple farmer from Menyamya during the Morobe Agriculture Show last weekend.
I had come across a few people from Menyamya who mentioned that the tropical climate was good for growing apples but I did not actually see locally grown apples until I met Guiye at the show.
One thing about Guiye’s set up during the last day of the show that really got my attention was that he displayed samples of bad apples, especially deformed green apples.
Out of curiosity I asked him for an interview but he declined, saying that he had to talk to his potential buyers for the apple nursery he brought with him, because he would need the money for the PMV fare back to his village.
I left my business card with him and left.
The next day, I got a call and the caller said, “I am Adonis the apple farmer, please I need you to do my story.”
I immediately went to Top Town and interviewed him, and apart from listening to him sharing his first experience of a Morobe Agriculture Show, I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was desperate to find answers to something that was bothering him greatly.
He is battling against something he really does not know and that has troubled him for quite some time; he is actually on a mission to save his 5,000 apple trees.
Guiye is from Kokweikwe village in Hakwange, Kome LLG in the Menyamya District, Morobe.
Aged 39, he started planting apples since 1992 when his mother was given apple seedlings by a family member while she was in Lae for a short stay.
“My mother brought the seedlings back to the village, and she planted them. After three years, in 1996, we harvested the first apples. They were really big and juicy, and looked really good,” Guiye said.
“We got new cuttings, and started planting, again and again and when other relatives asked, we gave a nursery. It was like this until everyone was familiar with the new fruit.”
He said the apples flowered around about the same time as coffee trees.
“When the coffee trees have flowers, the apples have their flowers, when the coffee cherry is ready for harvesting, the apples are also ripe.
“The apple trees grow next to the coffee trees, and this makes it very easy for me when it is time for harvesting coffee to process and send to Lae.”
He said the apples were organic just like coffee; there are no plant treatments or chemicals added to the soil.
I asked him what apple species he was farming, and he said “what I know is that there are two types, green and red, and these are the two I am farming.”
“The demand for apples in the local market is high,” Guiye tells me.
“People back in the village buy apples every day to have as snack. The highest price I sell at is K6 per fruit, but that is when the apples are healthy and are good.”
He said so far, there was no market for his apples outside Menyamya.
Over time he taught himself how to transplant the apples and his family currently owns more than 5,000 apple trees and 500 of them are currently mature and ready to bear fruit.
However, Guiye is a gravely concerned man as most of the trees are starting to die.
“I fear the apple trees are in danger, as there is some form of fungi growing on the stalk, and weird looking caterpillars are eating away the leaves.
“The first time I realised that was in 2014, and in 2015 I brought a didmeri (agriculturalist) to the apple farm to show her the disease or fungi that is eating away the stalk of the matured apple trees.
“But after taking notes and everything, something happened and she left, I never got answers to what was happening.
“A year later, it got worse, so I went to seek help from the National Agricultural Research Institute (Nari), but I couldn’t find any handbook on apples or any technical advice on apple farming.
“I was seeking the help of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock for some time, but I still cannot find the answers I am looking for.”
He said more than 2,000 apple trees have already died, and the disease is spreading from tree to tree, and he did not know how many more of his precious trees would succumb to the disease or pest.
The show last weekend was a time for farmers to showcase their products but according to Guiye, not only the good should be showcased.
“Sometimes we have to show people what bad things are happening so we can get help,” he said.
“My apple trees are dying and I do not know what to do. I have tried my best to seek government help from the village level, but no one could help me.
“When I heard about the Morobe Show, I told myself that I am from Menyamya and Menyamya is in Morobe. I must go and show people that in Menyamya, we are growing apples, and something bad is happening to the apple trees; maybe someone will help me find an answer.
“I need help on how to stop the disease from spreading, I need help on how to grow new ones that are free from this disease or fungi, I need help to create a market to sell,” Guiye said frustratingly.
“I am tired of letting people taste the apples and telling me “em gutpla” (this is good).
Guiye’s aim of showcasing the bad apples was to seek answers to save the apple trees that are being affected by disease. Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring a disease-affected tree stem to display.
His dream is to again sell healthy fruits and maybe one day, supply to other districts in Morobe, and provinces.