Ramu NiCo to provide pod borer resistant bud sticks

RAMU NiCo will provide cocoa farmers in the Astrolabe Bay local level government of Rai Coast, Madang, with 2,000 cocoa pod borer resistance bud sticks.
It is to encourage them to engage in a sustainable agriculture programme.
Tony Gayu, Ramu NiCo’s agriculture field officer based at the Basamuk refinery, said the company began transporting the bud sticks on Jan 28 to Feb 1 to support the farmers.
“To keep the bud sticks fresh for budding, we transported 400 sticks every day,” he said.
“Due to bad road conditions, we harvested the bud sticks at Erima village outside Madang, transported them to Madang town and loaded them on a dinghy to the nursery budding villages of Bibi, Kull, Kumisanger and Lila.”
Gayu said Ramu NiCo spent K2,000 to buy the CPB-tolerant bud stick at the nursery in Erima and transported them to the eight nurseries in ward one of Astrolabe Bay.
“The locals have a nursery with 35,000 seedlings,” he said.
They have budded 17,000 seedlings already but need to bud another 18,000.
“So we supplied 2,000 bud sticks that can cater for the seedlings.”