Sweet help Kutubu

By ZACHERY PER
GOROKA-based Helping Hands Honey Producers has successfully partnered with the World Wide Fund (WWF) to develop honey bee projects in the gas and oil-rich region of Nipa-Kutubu in Southern Highlands.
WWF sponsored local Kutubu landowners to attend training in honey bee production, ensuring all necessary materials and equipment were made available to trainees. Honey production is seen as vital because in Kutubu there is oil and gas discovery and people are not conserving the natural environment.
“WWF as an organisation advocating environment protection, sponsored the farmers to attend training to go into honey bee farming as one way to help in the protection of the natural environment,” WWF representative Elijah Simon said.
The organisation sponsored 21 aspiring bee farmers from remote locations in Kutubu area to attend a week-long bee keeping training in Goroka, Eastern Highlands recently.
The four women and 17 men completed the training and were awarded certificates at the Goroka Nature Habitat after the intensive training under the coordination of Helping Hand Honey Producers.
Simon, who spearheaded the training and mobilised the aspiring farmers and brought them to Goroka, thanked Helping Hands Honey Producers general manager Kelly Inae and his staff for the training.
“We never thought honey bees would thrive in Kutubu but the trials done by Kelly Inae and team have proven successful, therefore we are happy to pursue honey bee projects as an alternate income source for small farming families,” he said.
Simon said in Lake Kutubu there were many endemic flora and fauna. In the lake there are 12 unique fish species that are not found in any other part of the World.
“With mineral exploration and development, these endemic species are at the risk of being destroyed, therefore WWF is concerned about them and is taking many approaches to prevent their extinction, and training bee farmers is another way to get people to conserve their natural habitat.”
He said prior to the training, WWF had engaged Inae to do a feasibility study to see whether honey bee farming would be viable in Kutubu.
Simon said the study proved that honey bee production would be viable; therefore WWF sponsored 21 farmers from different villages in Kutubu to attend the week-long training in Goroka.
Inae said the training was the sixth Helping Hands Honey Production has conducted under its product name ‘Mountain Honey’.
He expressed satisfaction over the level of dedication and commitment from the Kutubu participants during the training.
Inae said WWF would purchase bee hive boxes to each of the participants and he would supply queen bees to them early next month.
“The monitoring and evaluation team from Helping Hands Honey Producers will monitor the progress to ensure the farmers in Kutubu get really acquainted with the skills of producing honey,” Inae said.
Participant Kofe Ibu said Kutubu was one of the hard-hit areas of the 7.5 magnitude earth quake in 2018 and training and honey production would be a recovery exercise for them.
He thanked WWF and Helping Hands Honey Producers for making it possible for them to attend the training under Inae the founding director and sole proprietor of the company.
Inae is no ordinary man, working very hard in Goroka with a bigger vision to one day become a producer and exporter of organic honey.
With limited honey bee farming knowledge, Inae, 51 left the comfort of his Mehia-Sioke village in Lower Bena Local Level Government in November 2006 to live in Goroka.
He was born to a missionary family of Pastor Inae Hiofa and wife Seiyome Inae of New Life Ministry Church. Inae left home to do theological studies on board a missionary vessel mv Doulos and travelled around the world.
“After completing my grade 10 at the then Goroka Demonstration High School, I left to do a Diploma in Theology on board the mv Doulos for three years. I traveled to 20 countries around the World.”
He is the only surviving son of Inae after two of his brothers Tony and Enoch passed on. His younger sister Gero is married and lives in Sioke village with her family.
Inae shelved his theological skills and knowledge and switched to honeybee farming when he realised the lucrative markets and potential to generate an income for families and the community at large.
“Like everyone says, every long journey starts with a first small step. I started a small honey bee project in November 2006 when I first came to settle in Goroka.
“With the help of my wife Phanta and our four children Khafagume, Splinder (daughters) and Kelly Jnr and Skinner (sons) who are now still in school, I started the honey bee project at our new found Lipiga home outside Goroka town,” he said.
Inae purchased a piece of land at Lipiga section between Black Corner and Fimito outside Goroka town and settled his family and starte the honeybee project.
“I got the land, surveyed and registered it and developed the bee training and honey processing facilities. I also built a natural habitat,” he said.
Inae said he has a dream to build a honey processing plant in Goroka to produce honey for overseas markets. He has increased building honey bee boxes for sale to bee farmers.
He has gone from strength to strength over the last 12 years to become a certified bee trainer, a queen bee breeder and honey downstream processor.
“I trained over 5,000 Papua New Guineans using my own training manual for beginners and established honey bee farmers. I also constructed bee hive boxes using the manual I wrote and sell copies of it to farmers,” he said.
A single box with a queen bee inside is on sale for K200 while a three-storey box with a queen bee is on sale for K650. He also gives bee hive boxes on loan to farmers who repay with honey they produce and not cash.
“My product on the shelves of some supermarkets is called ‘Mountain Honey’. I bought honey from farmers and bottled it for sale throughout PNG. One of my first success stories is the honey downstreaming and processing of ‘Waghi Valley Honey’ in Jiwaka,” Inae said.
He trained the farmers in Jiwaka who are working hard and are now successful with their products on sale in supermarkets.
“Some of the rural honey bee farmers in Henagaru in Okapa that I trained are now successful in putting their bottled honey on the shelves of supermarkets under their Henagaru Village Development Cooperative.”
Inae said many farmers that he had trained today have no financial problems for school fees. Some have built permanent homes and changed their standard of living.
“There was a particular man from whom I got 1,800 kg of honey and gave him money and he bought coffee and is deep into honey. I train farmers in financial literacy.
“I also do farm training for families, they should not only depend on honey alone, they can also depend on other crops too,” he said.
Inae conducted trainings for farmers in Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Morobe and now Southern Highlands (Kutubu).
He also had hands in farmers in remote locations of Marawaka, Andakobi in Obura-Wonenara district EHP and Salt Nomane area and Karamui in Salt Nomane Karamui district in Chimbu.
Helping Hands Honey products are now sold at Bintangor Supermarket, Seng Da Trading, Goroka Food Mart, Lutheran Guest House and Summer Institute of Linguistic (SIL) in Eastern Highlands.
His products are also on the shelves of Tema Mart in Kundiawa, Tiniga Supermarket in Mt Hagen and Seeto Kui in Lae Morobe.
“I am now in the process of negotiating with PNG Manufacturers Council to secure a bar-code for my product. I have already secured markets in Milne Bay,” Inae said.
He has very good partnering network with the University of Goroka, University of Technology in Lae, Sunshine Coast University in Australia, Eastern Highlands Provincial Agriculture office, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, National Agricultural Research Institute (Nari) and Oxfam International.