By Sylvester Gawi – EM TV, Lae
The Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea is now working closely with districts in Morobe to increase cocoa production in the province.
CEO, Boto Gaupu said that they are partnering with Morobe’s parliamentarians to counter fund projects at the district level.The production and quality of cocoa beans are expected to increase through this partnership.
The Cocoa Board has a nursery program with the Markham district to assist cocoa farmers in the area with more than 30, 000 seedlings of cocoa sprouting out from this nursery, and this will greatly increase the production of cocoa in Markham valley.
They revealed that they are in talks with the Tewae- Siassi MP, Mao Zeming, and other ministers to work in partnership to grow the cocoa industry in the FISIKA region.
Earlier this week, the Cocoa Board and the Morobe provincial government partnered with a local shipping company to transport cocoa bags from coastal villages into Lae.
The partnership aims at encouraging local cocoa farmers to be more productive and produce high quality cocoa beans for world market.
Furthermore, the board will also be distributing to farmers, clone materials, which are tolerant to the cocoa pod borer.
Other provinces like East New Britain, have also ventured into similar programs within their Local Level Governments (LLG’s) and Indigenous Land groups (ILG’s).
With more funding given for the training of local farmers and the distribution of clone materials, PNG will be able to increase its production of high quality beans for the world market.
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