AGRICULTURE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project

Between 2016 - 2019, as Lead Partner, we implemented the Productive Partnership in Agriculture Project (PPAP) on coffee funded by the World Bank, International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), and PNG Government through the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC). The beneficiaries were 3200+ people from 8x villages in Erap, Nawaeb District, Morobe Province. The aim of the project was to improve the livelihood of producers by increasing cash income, strenghthening grower groupss, and changing behaviours through capacity building programmes.
1. Garden Rehabilitation
We rehabilitated 742 old coffee gardens (112,000 trees) in smallholder farms and villages. Many of these gardens were planted in the 1960's, and had over-grown with shade and neglected. Tools and materials like bush/grass knives, files, spades, secateurs, and pruning saws were also given to farmers to help them manage their gardens by doing shade control, drainage, replanting, etc.
2. Nurseries & Seedlings
We established 8x nurseries, one each in each village, raised and distributed a total of 216,860 seedlings. Each farmer received 270 seedlings of Typica, Arusha and Mundonovo varieties, all well suited to the high altitude tropical cool climates of PNG. Farmers were also trained on various aspects of nursery establishment, seedling care, and field planting.
3. Processing and Quality
We trained farmers on how to identify and harvest only fully red-ripe cherries, and best practices in pulping, fermentation, washing, and drying. We also built 3x mini-wet mills (35 kg/hr), supplied 407 coffee pulpers, solar drying beds, coffee film rolls, wire drying beds, canvases and many other items to help improve coffee quality.
4. Marketing Support
We provided marketing support to farmers by training and mobilizing farmers into group marketing. In addition, we did organic certification of growers with NASSA and USDA certification bodies. Transport and logistics, and business support services were also provided to help coffee SME's, especially buyers in the villages.