Woman wants to change mindset, advance into farming

CHANGING mindsets is Lucy Nunu’s plan to advance women’s skill in agriculture in Papa village, Central.
Nunu is the president of Papa Women in Agriculture (PWIA) and recently attended the Global Women in Management (GWIM) programme in the United States funded by the ExxonMobil Foundation.
The quiet and soft-spoken woman from Hanuabada village just outside Port Moresby’s central business district is married to Mollet, who comes from the Papa village.
Nunu is the first woman from her community to have participated in the GWIM programme and is also the first woman to have undergone the programme from the agricultural sector.
“It was a great privilege to be one of GWIM programme participants, which was facilitated by ExxonMobil PNG and GWIM alumni’s Advancing PNG: Women Leadership Network,” she said.
Nunu said it was great to learn new ideas from the other participants and to interact with other likeminded women during the month-long programme.
She identified several goals she wanted to achieve together with her community but said before this could be done, there needed to be a change of mindset.
“One of PWIA’s goals is to move away from household farming. Our gardens are now just sufficient for daily living.
“With the idea of growing fresh produce on a large scale for commercial purposes, we hope it can support household incomes.
“With farming equipment donation from the Gas Resources PNG LNG Plant Ltd, we intend to promote our traditional crops, especially cassava and have it commercialised.
“Through PWIA, we have ploughed a hectare to commercialise cassava,” she said.
She said they also have an agricultural training programme.