Rubber farmers from Karawari LLG in Angoram district floated downstream the Sepik River for three weeks before reaching Angoram to sell their 468 bags of cup lump.
At Angoram they hope to sell their produce at a higher price under the Government’s price support program.
They reached Kambaramba village near Angoram on Monday, when they were met by a visiting ‘monitoring and evaluation’ technical team comprising officers from the Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM) and Department of Agriculture and Livestock on board the floating raft.
The farmers and their cup lumps were from wards 5 and 6 villages of Imanmeri and Amanwari villages in the district. According to Karawari LLG President, Emil Kongien said there is a need to provide transportation for rubber sales.
“There is still tons of rubber in Karawari that needs to be transported out to the markets”, Kongien said.
He added that transportation and market accessibility remains the rural farmers’ biggest challenge and appealed to the Government to buy them a barge (transport vessel), provide proper tools and equipment for farmers, and maintain fair price on their produce at all times.
