Potatoes to be next cash crop

Lae News, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 6th September, 2012

POTATOES are being developed to become another cash crop, Fresh Produce Development Agency extension adviser Deborah Bubun says.
That was being done through extension work to mobilise rural farmers.
Bubun, who returned to Lae, Morobe, had spent four days training 34 locals in the Deyamos local level government in Kabwum district.
The agency is mandated under the Department of Agriculture and Livestock to develop fruits and vegetables growing into industries and is conducting training in the cooler areas of coastal provinces to develop farmers to become like their counterparts in the highlands region.
In Morobe, the agency has already had training programmes with farmers from Wantoat in Markham district and Boana in the Nawaeb district.
The training in the Deyos LLG was attended mostly by village and church elders from Birimon, Sei, Daru, Dawot, Gotowan, Gomandak, Kautgen, Bouron, Somgin, Tumun, Yandu and host village Timowan.
Those programmes were funded by the smallholders support contract facilities of Morobe DAL division of agriculture and livestock.
“Through this training FPDA gets to know better the real situation of local potato farmers, establish a main seed distribution centre, organises farmers into associations and cooperative societies to meet demands from the markets and educates farmers on potato production and the potato late blight disease, which affected the country’s production in 2003,” Bubun said.