Coffee Industry News

SSSPP Project Farmers Graduate (28/10/08)

Public – Private Partnership (PPP) concept gains momentum as farmers from Gotomi in the Lufa District of Eastern Highlands Province (EHP) graduated last Friday (24/10/08) under the Smallholder Support Services Pilot Project (SSSPP) of the provincial Division of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL).

The participants were trained in coffee, honeybee, sheep and poultry farming through projects contracted out to service providers.

Present at the ceremony was Lufa Member of Parliament, Honourable Yawa Silupa, who stressed the importance of agriculture: “The Government of today is looking at agriculture to drive the economy so we must take advantage of this through such trainings and projects as the SSSPP,” said Honourable Silupa.

During his presentation, the member made a commitment for a
vehicle for Lufa’s Agriculture and Livestock division. Honourable
Silupa further talked on coffee as being the main cash crop of the
area and committed to making half a million kina available for
Lufa coffee and technical advise, skills and knowledge from the
Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) to emphasis the PPP concept.
These commitments are to be delivered next year through the
Lufa District Development Plan.

Training participant and coffee project owner, Mr Belden of Fima
Coffee said that under SSSPP, the group produced 10,000 seedlings
in poly bags and distributed ten seedlings each to all members of
the Fima community.  There are now 20,000 seedlings in the germination bed. Mr Belden embraced the PPP concept as the way forward for the coffee industry of Lufa district to produce high quality coffee.

CIC Research & Grower Services Division General Manager, Mr Potaisa Hombunaka, said the Public-Private Partnership of CIC and EHP DAL eased the burden of limited resources and worked well for farmers as the coffee farmer is also involved in other agricultural activities.

Eastern Highlands Deputy Provincial Administrator, Mr Solomon Tato, challenged the farmers to utilise their skills and further challenged the EHP DAL find markets for the goods and work for improved market access.

The SSSPP aims to make support services easily available to smallholder farmers and accomplish the goal of increasing agricultural production within the framework of a sustainable farming environment. The SSSPP is a delivery system that assists farming communities to meet their needs because farmers themselves identify the tasks that the service providers undertake.

The SSSPP was funded by Asian Development Bank and ended in December 2007. The program continues with funding from the Eastern Highlands Provincial Government.

 

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