Remote farmers given a boost

By CORA MOABI
FOUR months ago, a woman in Negabo in the Karamui-Nomane District of Chimbu mobilised resources to move for the first time a coffee mini-huller into her area.
Helen Genai, better known as the Queen Bee of Business in Karamui, has been involved in coffee business for more than 17 years. Her work involves mobilising coffee farmers, organising charters to bring in front loads of basic goods and back loads of coffee bags to the market, bringing in the sick to the hospitals for treatment and making sure her people have access to basic goods and services.
The construction of the coffee storage shed and mini-huller started in May this year where Helen organised with the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to bring materials such as timber, roofing iron, bags of cement and food rations for a carpenter and his helpers to build the facility.
After months of hard work and sweat, the mini coffee and storage shed was completed and launched on Wednesday, Sept 25 in Negabo.
The CIC procured seven mini-hullers under a trial project to assist remote coffee farmers to freight green bean coffee to the market. Negabo was the first community to successfully complete its storage shed, and receive one of the mini-hullers to set up.
The remote community came alive on Wednesday in jubilant traditional colours and singsing groups for the official opening of the facility.

CIC Chief Executive Officer Charles Dambui, senior managers and technical officers flew into the area on Wednesday to open the facility and talk to the community.
Dambui thanked the local community for embracing the project and allowing his technical officers to travel into the area to make the initial groundwork.
He urged them to take ownership of the project, as CIC will continue to send in officers to check on the progress of this project.
“This facility belongs to you and I urge you to take ownership until such time when results prove that this trial project is commercially viable to continue.”
He said the CIC Freight Subsidy Scheme (FSS) concentrated on airfreighting parchment coffee out from such areas, however CIC was taking one step further to trial out airfreighting of green bean coffee.
Dambui said about 15-20 per cent of the coffee airfreighted contains the hull and it was uneconomical to pay the freight cost to move this rubbish out to the market.
He said remote farmers would be able to sell in green bean price and reduce market transaction costs.

Dambui said this was a pilot project and its success in Negabo would determine the continuity into other rural airstrips.
Other locations include Simbai and Rai Coast in Madang, Agaun in Milne Bay, Goilala in Central, Yalumet in Morobe, and Boiko in Eastern Highlands.
Community representative Balau Peter thanked CIC for bringing something new into his area and asked for further support in terms of moving coffee out.
He said the community burnt 200 bags of parchment coffee in 2009 and did not want the same to happen and called for government support.
Helen, a local woman leader who has been the voice and hope for the people there, said 13 council wards in the area would benefit from this project. She thanked the Government through CIC for supporting them since 2014, however, more needs to be done to move coffee out. She said this year has been a slow start as they have not moved any coffee bags out due to nil support to charter third-level airlines to go into the area.
Community leader, Joseph Bai said Karamui was a disadvantaged area that needed government support to come in a big way to see its full potential in economic activities.
“Today, you saw that we have poured coffee on the grandstand to decorate it as we want to demonstrate how hard it has been to transport coffee out.”
He called on the Government to continue to support CIC’s freight programme as they were facing a very hard time waiting for the planes to go into their area to do coffee runs.
Saki Sanoma and Daniel Hambe are two devoted community health workers (CHWs) at the Negabo Health Centre. They expressed similar sentiments on coffee challenges and also their concerns in terms of good lighting and other equipment support for the health centre.
Hambe who been serving as a CHW for seven years said staff housing was an issue that needed immediate support by the Government to renovate old houses for them to live in with their families and work in the area.
The centre sees over 100 patients in a day that come from Yogoromaru, Dibe, Sogo, Negabo, Tuwa, Teliki-Bope, Maina, Masi, Hobe, Noru, Sola, Kalepai and Dobu.
The health workers also continue to face the burden of meeting airfares (K350) themselves to go into towns to pay for goods and services and then return to Negabo.
Meanwhile, CIC will be supplying 50 coffee hand pulpers to the coffee farmers in Negabo.
The mini-huller project comes together with a coffee storage shed under the FSS programme funded by the Government through the PIP (Public Investment Programme).

• The author is the media liaison officer with PNG Coffee Industry Corporation.