Why do Smallholder - coffee growers need potential initiatives to address challenges in coffee production in Papua New Guinea (PNG)?

Papua New Guinea has huge potential to become the world's first coffee producer in the world when considering associated factors in coffee production. Coffee growers need a way forward initiative that could potently address the ongoing challenges faced from the production of coffee to marketing.

This article focussed and discussed more on Ezebilo’s spotlight published on prospects of coffee production and initiatives for addressing challenges faced by coffee growers in PNG, (2023). The author highlighted the importance of household being engaged in business associated with coffee production, processing, and marketing, however, there are ongoing challenges associated with the coffee production process that needs to be addressed.

Coffee production has been a backbone of the rural economy and more than 2.5 million people depend on coffee to meet their daily lives such as paying school fees, compensation payments, bride price payments, and other social community obligations including meeting their basic needs, especially in the Highlands region of PNG. ?According to the World Bank report, about 85 percent of coffee production is done by smallholder coffee growers and now is productively low because of the new main reasons.

• The lack of tailored extension packages including adequate replanting strategies (most of the trees are over 40 years old).
• Constraints to market access reduce farm-gate prices and smallholders’ incentives to invest.

Local coffee growers in the Highlands Region of PNG grow coffee such as Arabica is a commercial quantity that has a huge potential in producing in large quantities to increase export earnings and improve household earnings.

Challenges associated with coffee production in PNG

• Inadequate access to basic infrastructure such as road connections, bridges, coffee pruning equipment, coffee rust control facilities, and other facilities that maintain coffee yield production.
• Inadequate extension services.
• Most of the coffee trees in PNG tend to have passed their economic productive age.
• Some coffee growers convert whole or part of their coffee fields to other more economical crops.
• Pests and diseases.
• Unfavorable market prices.
• ?Access to finance.
• Access to land for commercial coffee production.

?There are Potential initiatives to address challenges associated with Coffee Production in Papua New Guinea are:

1. Drawing lessons from the countries that have been successful in managing enemies to coffee such as coffee leaf rust, coffee beery berry borer, coffee green scale and pink disease, and other issues mitigating coffee production.
2. Conduct an assessment on how to improve the effectiveness of CIC extension services.
3. Coffee growers should be encouraged to join or establish cooperatives and participate actively.
4. Government at all levels should make rural areas more attractive by providing basic facilities such as water, electricity, and good road networks.
5. Government should provide a strong "political will" in coffee production through the Ministry of Coffee.

?According to the article written by Ezebilo, there is a potential way forward to increase government export earnings and improve smallholder coffee growers if there is a corrective approach considered to address barriers associated with the life of coffee production. Other parts of the world recommended that Coffee grown in PNG has a favorable taste that potentially seems to be high in demand. To ensure coffee boosts the economy and contribute much to the economy; it's necessary for the government and smallholder coffee growers to work together to draw lesion from other countries, conduct an assessment on how to improve it effectiveness of the extension services, encourage coffee growers to establish corporative and actively, government providing facilities and services to be easy excess for transportation of coffee and government to come up with strategies on encouraging coffee growers to improve their coffee production in the rural areas of PNG.

Written by: Jerry Birop

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