Lift for farmers in PNG's Sepik through EU aid programme

RNZ News

10-06-2025

Cocoa tree in Papua New Guinea
Photo:
RNZ
A number of United Nations agencies working in East and West Sepik in Papua New Guinea over the last four or five years believe they've helped improve the livelihoods of more than 100,000 people.
The European Union funded project, through its EU-STREIT (Support to Rural Development, Entrepreneurslhip, Investment and Trade) programme, has been helping farmers in isolated areas to improve production and sales.
A senior agriculture officer with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Dr Rabi Rasaily, told
Don Wiseman
that through teaching better techniques, and seedlings, upgraded roads and help with marketing, they have improved the value chains for cocoa and turmeric growers.
RABI RASAILY:
The cocoa and vanilla is mainly for the export commodities, export markets, international markets, and maybe a few here in a country, for semi- processing. But for fisheries, is mainly targeting or working towards the nutrition aspect, how we can mitigate the chronic stunting, especially in the East and West Sepik. So for fisheries, we are working for only for the aquaculture, riverine and the coastal fisheries, not the marine. So these are the three value chains that we are working under component one.
The second one, it is more on the enabling environment. So all the other interventions which will complement these value chains, to improve the value chain, like, for example, I mentioned earlier, the ILO so who are responsible for improving the infrastructures, that includes the road infrastructures, the feeder roads, or the district roads or the provincial roads that connect to the market, especially for the cocoa and also, of course, for the other reasons, for vanilla and others, for safety and security and other issues are there. So they are supporting these cocoa farmers, or the value chain, other value chain farmers on access to market through the infrastructure development, but not only the road, but they will also work on the waterways, because many farmers along the Sepik Rivers, or the other side of the Sepik rivers, and its tributaries, so where they can bring their commodities via dinghies or canoes or banana boats, motor boats.
In addition to that, they also focus on the airstrip, the rural airstrip, where the farmers can bring their products as well as, of course, supports to their medical emergencies and other social benefits.
Don Wiseman:
Let's start with roading systems. These are areas where, essentially there were no roads, were there?
RR:
Yes, there were roads, but all were in bad conditions, not motor-able, just like, let me say, as a bush track. To these all enabling environments, like, for example, the roads, like those are the bush tracks. They were already some kind of road sections there under the provincial administration division of works. They were there, but it was not functional. That was not a motor-able road. So they are improving this.
DW:
How many roads have you built? And are they sealed roads?
RR:
No, it is not a sealed road. It's a gravel road. I think it's around 13 roads, 13 roads are building across the East and West Sepik.
DW:
One of the big problems in the area is the huge amount of rain it gets. And we know the impact of rain on roads, on dirt roads or metal roads, can be catastrophic, can't it - it can wash them away. So who's responsible for the ongoing maintenance?
RR:
That's what the ILO is working together with the provincial Division of Work closely. There are two methods that they are working on. One, we call it the rehabilitation of the roads, and other one is they are looking into the maintenance of that road, through they call it RMG's [Road Maintenance Group] are formed along the roads, so they are taking care or maintaining those roads.
DW:
Let's talk about the value chains in which you yourself are involved. Let's go with cocoa, because cocoa has been such a huge thing in Papua New Guinea over this past year, hasn't it?
RR:
Yes, that's true.
DW:
So what have you been doing in terms of improving the value chain?
RR:
Our program, we started in 2020. We starting from the production level to processing and also to marketing and linkages and also semi processing. So starting from the capacity building. Two to three years we were focused mainly on the capacity building, on better productions. The cocoa pod borer infestation [CPB] was huge in Papua New Guinea and also, I think, in many other Pacific countries. So with that, the Cocoa Board had recommended, or have been, after many years of research, recommended the 18 varieties of clone seedlings that are tolerant to CPB. And that's what we were promoting. And together with the Cocoa Board and the Division of Agriculture and Livestock at the provincial level. So we were promoting these technologies of birding or cloning, or we call it propagations of these seedlings, cocoa seedlings, to have it to replace their old blocks, which are infested by the CPB, with this new clone seedlings.
DW:
What was the degree of take up among the farmers? Did they all take on these new seedlings?
RR:
Yes they are taking all the new seedlings, they are now replacing their whole blocks. But of course, the vast area of Sepik is used on the rehabilitation of these cocoa blocks. So by this program, we have already distributed around 3 million seedlings, cocoa pod borer-tolerant seedlings that we have distributed. And we are working with 351 groups across all the districts of East and West Sepik. So we have trained around 10,000 farmers on how to do this. And not only that, we have also supported them on the establishment of nursery and bottled gardens. That is where they can get the bud sticks, to clone their seedlings, the root stocks. So that's how we are doing it, so that it is easily accessible for the farmers at the remote areas.
DW: This high price that there is for cocoa around the world - the people that you've been working with, are they ready yet to benefit from that?
RR:
Yes, what we have seen now is really benefit is coming up; like, for example, one of the factors, mainly, of course, what we know is that it's like the cocoa price is record high. And that is, of course, number one... it was really, really a motivation, of course, as you said, so, the farmers to have this global price rise, and they are benefiting it. And another one is that the seedlings that we distributed in 2020, and 2021, and 2022 are already starting the productions. So meaning to say the farmers are really benefiting from this current situation.
DW:
All right, another product you were dealing with was vanilla; and that also, I think, has been going through a boost internationally, hasn't it?
RR:
Not really - compared to cocoa, no... the vanilla price has been, let's say, stagnant for a couple of years now. Whereas before the program, I think it started in 2017,18, 19 - the price was really, really high. But after that 2020, 2021, price dropped significantly. And I would not say that the vanilla prices boost internationally or globally now.
DW:
So in terms of vanilla, what were you able to do there?
RR:
The same thing that we started from the productions and the processings and other aspects of it. So then the products, and especially what we have like doing it, and, of course, the pollinations and other practices, especially the block managements, how to manage the block, how to do the IPGM, integrated pest and disease management training, and so on and so forth.
But the main part here, what we also introduced, or what built in our program, was that killing of the vanilla beans, the green beans. We call it killing because once after you harvest, usually the farmers used to do here the sun drying, the sun drying and killing, which really affected the quality, because, of course, the sunshine... is not there, sometimes you have rain, and they saw the immediate drying or killing of green beans were not possible. But we introduced the water killing method. So water killing method is like you put the green beans in a warm, not 60 to 63 degrees Celsius water, one which is warm you measure. You dip it there for few minutes, and then you take it out, and then you start condensing and other curing process is started. So that ensures the quality improvement in the vanilla beans, the curing beans. The other technologies that we also introduce is the basic type solar dryer, which is kind of a very simple technology. It's not using of any PV system, photovoltaic signal. It's a direct sunlight with the glass, but with the chambers, the hot air drying of the vanilla beans, and it really saw the good results on that. One is the maintenance of the colour, because the practice was direct sun drying, maybe on the open field or on the metal sheets like copper, like the GI seeds or other tarpaulins and like that, the uniform drying was not there and the colour discoloration was also there. ...The other one is, of course, when you dry openly, they are very prone to other infestations.
DW:
You were doing a lot of work in terms of aquaculture, and so this is to help farmers or families to grow their own fish in ponds. And this practice was already underway in Sepik, but you've just improved it dramatically.
RR:
I would say yes and also no, because, as I mentioned, there are three areas that what we are working on, the fisheries; the coastal, yes, it was ongoing that people net the fish consumes for the coastal areas, it's normal; but we only capacitate them or empower them through providing the motor boats and other fishing gears, like IFAD, integrated fish aggregated device, and as well as some Eskies and other protected gears to increase the shelf life of the fish. But for the aquaculture, which are mainly on the inland side, it was very - I would say - limited, or none, in most of the districts in Sepik. So that's what the aquaculture came in as a significant support or a significant improvement on the fish diet. They can get the fresh fish even in the inland. So the program distributed the fingerlings from the hatcheries and nurseries that the program supported to the big farmers - some were already established; some were program also supported, and distributed to these inland fisher groups or these finger households, not a big or commercial type. It is just like for the self consumption, as well as if there is a surplus, can sell it to others. So that is on the nutrition aspects of that. The fresh fish is, I would say, is very rarely available in the inland of Sepik region. Whereas the riverine fish, which is around the Sepik River and distributors - mostly they come as a smoke fish or dried fish to the market, but fresh fish, due to all these challenges, like the lack of cold storage, lack of freezers, lack of transportations, so the dried fish are brought to the market.
DW:
What sort of fish is it?
RR:
This, mainly for aquaculture, is mainly tilapia.
DW:
Tilapia? Okay. With these various attempts to improve farming and roading and whatever, what are you seeing in terms of the economic development for the farmers now?
RR:
Mainly this cocoa or vanilla are for the export markets, and the increase in production or the productivity really helped them. And of course, with the price that has boomed, especially for cocoa, has really improved their economic development, empowered them; their livelihoods also improved. And also, similarly with the vanilla, but also, I would say, the enabling environment, which I was not able to finish, because the digitalization, like the UNCDF, that linking with mini bank or micro banks that we are working on, so they create their accounts, so they go the cashless payments, or they can sell their product to the buyers, and they get the money through these transactions. And also the ITU... the networking, and also the resource centres, where we have established resource centres in public facilities like schools and other facilities, where they can get the training and access to the knowledge materials that are available. And also in online we have online learning materials system we call LMS... Anyone can download it and or watch it. So that one is that, and the UNDP was like in renewable energy, having it installed in the public facility like health post and the schools. So these are also catering services to the farmers and their children, in the rural areas, to get this access to good education and to access to good health.