Project helping farmers

By ZACHERY PER
THE Fresh Produce Development Agency’s (FPDA) market for village farmers (MVF) project is creating an enabling environment for subsistence farmers to transition into commercial growing, acting project manager Joe Koima says.
He said the project was assisting subsistence farmers in the five participating provinces of Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands and Morobe to move into farming as a business and eventually into commercial production of fresh produce to supply top end markets.
“In these provinces, we are dealing with a fresh vegetables production value chain while MVF galip nut project is being implemented in East New Britain,” Koima said.
“Galip nut farmers in East New Britain are also transforming from the traditional subsistence production into commercial space.”
He said FPDA was engaging lead partners who were working with some 25,000 farming households.