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By ABIGAIL APINA
THERE is now an opportunity for cocoa growers in Manus to test cocoa hybrid and improve production after the Cocoa Pod Borer pest was detected there in early 2010. The Cocoa Coconut Institute, through the agriculture innovation grant scheme, funded a project in Manus to help cocoa growers. The scheme is a component of the Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility funded by AusAID.
THERE is now an opportunity for cocoa growers in Manus to test cocoa hybrid and improve production after the Cocoa Pod Borer pest was detected there in early 2010. The Cocoa Coconut Institute, through the agriculture innovation grant scheme, funded a project in Manus to help cocoa growers. The scheme is a component of the Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility funded by AusAID.
The project, which involved scientists from the institute, was introduced last November to manage the pest and improve the income of smaller farmers in Manus. One of the scientists involved in the project, Dr Eremas Tade, said the targeted cocoa farmers under this project were located in the Nali Sopat/Penabu, Lelemadih/Bupi Chupeu, Rapatona and Balopa local level governments. Because of funding limitation, only 20 farmers from each LLG were selected. Tade said the main concept of this project was for the farmers to be trained by the institute’s scientists and Agriculture and Livestock Department extension officers in the province to adopt the ‘utilisation of integrated pest and disease management’ technology. The trained farmers were then expected to teach their neighbours on how to control the cocoa pest in the province. “In this way, the technology is transferred and shared among the small holder cocoa farmers in the province,” Tade said.
A team of scientists visited the project site and the four locations. They reported that the project was on target to accomplish all the major outputs and related activities on time. Tade said Manus farmers involved in the project were eager to grow the crop and the team was helping them with nursery establishment and field planting of the new cocoa clones. He said as the agriculture innovation grant scheme funding drew to a close, the institute’s management had directed the project team to discuss how the project could be incorporated as part of the portfolio of the Cocoa Coconut Institute extension activities in partnership with the provincial government through a memorandum of agreement.
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