Project aims to equip farmers with knowledge

THE International Finance Corporation (IFC) has been working with the South Pacific Brewery on its cassava project with farmers in Erap, Morobe, by advising them on the farming practices, says project manager Regina Malie.
Malie told The National that IFC’s role was to work with the farmers to equip them with the knowledge and skills to farm cassava and ensure high standards were maintained throughout the planting, nurturing and processing of the root vegetable.
She said IFC also tried to eliminate the threat of diseases in the field by providing sanitised cuttings for farmers of the six varieties of cassava for the project.
According to Malie, if the cuttings were not sanitised, the crops would be vulnerable to disease which could spread in the plot.
Sanitising process involved the use of using bleach, antibacterial chemicals and detergents.
“We have the red spider mite that’s a pest but with diseases at the moment, we haven’t seen any serious disease,” she said.
“Red spider mite appears when the place is dry so we encourage the farmers to spray regularly otherwise it goes away when rain comes.”
Malie said IFC linked the farmers to MiBank for training and to open accounts.
Following the training, the farmers would be taught how to manage their business and good agriculture practices – gender smart agriculture and climate smart agriculture.
Malie said IFC engaged farmers to help transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming because SP Brewery planned to use cassava to brew new products.
“Farmers had been growing cassava among other crops and haven’t grown cassava in large scale like this,” she said.
“So our training is aimed at training farmers so they shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming.
“And then we work with them to make sure they supply the quality and volume SP requires.”