Partnering with educational institutions to promote ‘agriculture as a profession’ in rural Papua New Guinea

Wewak, Papua New Guinea – In an effort to promote agriculture as a profession (Agribusiness) among youths in Papua New Guinea, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, is supporting an initiative by Wosera High School to engage students as well as the surrounding communities in sustainable cocoa value chain development.

Following appraisal visits and a review of their business plan, the Programme supported the school’s newly initiated cocoa project through the provision of cocoa husbandry tools and materials, including polybags, shades cloths, pole pruners, wheelbarrows, pruning saws, shovels, tie wires, watering cans, measuring tapes, and budding tapes. 

“The EU-STREIT PNG also supplied 3,000 cloned seedlings that will be followed by a training on cocoa bud-grafting for subject matter teachers and lead students to produce seedlings for planting and community distribution”, highlighted by the FAO National Cocoa Production Officer, Odrick Urum. 

“Many are called, but few are chosen. With a visionary person like the principal of Wosera High, the Programme supports these initiatives to serve as an encouragement for other schools and communities,” said Ms Patu Shang, the Programme’s International Gender and Youth Inclusion Specialist, during the presentation of tools and materials.

The school, through its own initiative, had already planted 1,200 Cocoa Pod Borer (CPB) tolerant seedlings, and the support of the EU-STREIT PNG will further boost the students’ and staff’s morale to produce more cloned seedlings in their new nurseries, thereby increasing their farming capacity as well as for distribution to local communities.  

According to the School Principal, Joseph Jangwan, the plan is that every Grade 7 student will be in charge of 20 cloned cocoa seedlings on the school farm. The skills and knowledge imparted under the Programme will help the students to grow these seedlings. The resulting cocoa beans once sold, will serve as a source of income for the students (30%) and for the school (70%). These students will open an account at MiBank, a partner of the UNCDF under the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, to save their income. 

Upon graduation, they will not only depart with a certificate, but also with a savings account, 15-20 cloned seedlings to set up in their respective communities, and the knowledge and skills to improve their cocoa farms. The establishment of a fermentary is also envisioned as part of the plan for the school cocoa business project. 

“Not all students will find a place for higher learning, so some of the students can take up farming as a profession. The income from cocoa farming can be a means to other ends, including furthering their education,” explained the very enthusiastic Principal Jangwan. 

“This is the first initiative for a high school in the Sepik region, with the support of the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, and I’m very excited,” said a Grade 9 student Hillary Makain.

In addition to the school farm project, Wosera High School has an ICT centre, which is now earmarked as a resource centre to be supported by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, under the ITC component of the Programme, led by the International Telecommunication Union. The resource centre will serve as an information and knowledge hub for students and communities. 

This package, thereby, serves as a one-stop shop for the exemplification of a sustainable cocoa value chain development approach.