After three years of being neglected by the offices that they knocked on, the couple who owns the Nikhen Cotton Farm at Aroma Coast in the Central Province were so thankful when the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru made time to see them on Friday, October 28, 2022.
Helen Imana and Nama Imana started planting cotton seeds in 2017. They started with just two seeds that they had brought from Alotau to their Pelegai village in Aroma.
“We planted those cotton trees in our yard because we loved their flowers,” said Helen.
“After the flowers dried and the cottons came out, we had an interest to take those cottons and make pillows from them. Seeing the pillows that we had made from the cottons that we had grown gave us the impression that we could plant more cotton trees and make a living from it,” she said.
Helen and Nama planted 76 more cotton trees in their garden from the seeds of their first two trees. Then they reached out to Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) for assistance and a team from DAL Southern Region visited the farm in 2018 and published a report in 2019.
“The DAL team advised us that they would communicate with the Central Governor our local MP to see how they could support us, but we had not had any correspondence from them,” said Hellen.
DAL Southern Region tasked Helen and Nama to plant the cotton trees on a hectare of land. The couple did not have the funds to have that task done so they reached out to SME Corporation who assisted them with K3, 000. After they completed the task, they received no further response or support from anyone to date. Despite, being neglected for three years now, the couple continue to keep their cotton farm alive which has about 4, 000 cotton trees that are currently growing in the bushes because of lack of support.
“We are now preparing a hectare of land and nursing the cotton plants so we can start replanting next month,” said Helen.
With thousands of hectares of land available, Helen and Nama are eager to have this industry go large-scale.
Minister Maru was impressed with the couple’s effort and was also saddened to note that their efforts were not recognized and supported.
“This (cotton) is a very important industry. We are currently importing: why are we not giving this a priority? I am very grateful to Nikhen Cotton Farm for the effort that they are putting through and we need to help them,” he said.
Minister Maru made a commitment to Helen and Nama that the Government, through the Ministry of International Trade and Investment would have a look at the project and see how they could support. He said that if the Government was to be involved, then experts needed to be engaged to carry out a study and give advice before any Government resources were to be committed.
“I want someone who has the knowledge in this industry to come and visit the farm to see the land there, the weather, the soil type, whether the variety of the cotton tree that is being grow there is the right type, how to do a big nursery, who the buyers will be, how much can be made per hectare, whether the cottons can be processed in the country, and how it can change the lives of the people there, ” said Minister Maru.
As part of his commitment to support them, Minister Maru sent a team from his Ministry to visit the farm and to provide a report to him on the way forward to develop the industry if the potential was there.
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