THE Minister for Agriculture and Livestock John Simon has launched a cocoa project for a church just past the Kwikila station in Central Province.
In launching the project on Thursday (September 30) he presented a K20,000 cash for the establishment of a nursery and fermentation for the cocoa pods.
Minister Simon who was welcomed in a small but colourful manner was presented with a proposal for the project and assured the people of Rigo that he will look into it and will direct the Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea to assist the significant project.
Minister Simon and his Department were invited by Saroa Keina United Church Men Boy Ministry for a Cocoa Project the church was embarking on; however the absence of Cocoa Board officers had disappointed the Minister.
“Coming here and seeing no nursery from the Cocoa Board is pretty bad and very bad,” said Minister Simon.
“As a Minister I feel very bad talking about things my Department cannot do.”
He said, as a keen supporter of Agriculture, he wanted to revive Agriculture in the country. The sector that would generate the economy overtime.
The cocoa project named the Eden Manifesto is basically to bring men back on the church. It is a project aimed at assisting for the church financially.
The project was initiated by Samson Gaire, a young man who graduated from Vudal University in 2016 with Bachelor in Agriculture. He had also documented a five-year development proposal and contains framework for the project.
In an interview with this newspaper, Mr. Gaire as an agriculturist saw the need for such project in order to assist the church financially.
“I grew up in the church and I have seen the church not functioning well due to financial constraints.
“Since graduating in 2016 and returning to the village, I have seen the struggles faced by the church so I decided to come up with an idea to expose my potentials as an agriculturist to help my people,” said Mr. Gaire.
The project is expected to assist the church financially so they can meet their annual targets levied against them by the Circuit and the Regional Assembly of the United Church in Papua New Guinea.