Coffee co-op urges youth to till the land

The National, Monday 24th December, 2012

By ZACHERY PER CREATING an interest to go back to the land is one of the aims of Apo, Angra and Kange (AAK) Coffee Cooperative Societies Ltd in the highlands region. This was the gist of a remark by AAK coordinator Brian Kuglame at the closing of the three-day training for provincial officers in Goroka last week. He said the start of the cooperative movement in Eastern Highlands (Apo), Chimbu (Angra) and Western Highlands/Jiwaka (Kange) would instill confidence among local coffee farmers to secure their own market and help produce quality coffee. Kuglame said most coffee growers in PNG had not only failed to achieve financial independence after years of producing coffee but also failed to acquire coffee growing and management skills. “We also aim to make the community achieve the 2050 vision by becoming a strong, wealthy and healthy community,” Kuglame said. AAK had the slogan “Kamap man tru”  (become a real man) to help get young people to return to the land, get their hands dirty and become a “real man”, he said. He said they had a total of 63 cluster groups in the four highlands provinces. Kuglame said the World Bank-funded productive partnerships in agriculture project (PPAP) required them to equip officers in the field with skills and knowledge to help farmers. AAK is one of the six successful applicants out of 118 to obtain PPAP funding. PNG Coffee Exports is working in partnership with AAK to implement the PPAP project. Officers representing the four provinces at the training were presented with coffee saws, pruning scissors, sprayers and other tools for distribution to the cluster groups.    

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