Papua New Guinea’s cocoa industry is recovering from the pest, but the cocoa pod borer (CPB) still presents a major challenge and is unlikely ever to be fully eradicated, Cocoa Board of PNG project manager John Moxon tells Business Advantage PNG.
Young farmers learning how to deal with cocoa pod borer at the Tokiala Plantation. Credit: PNG Loop
Perhaps the region worst affected by the cocoa pod borer (CPB) has been East New Britain Province, where little mature cocoa has survived, due to neglect of the old trees.
Between 2008 and 2012, exports of PNG’s dry bean cocoa from East New Britain Province fell from about 21,640 tonnes to just 4,000 tonnes —an 80 per cent drop. More than 80 per cent of cocoa farmers abandoned their plantations in those four years and sought work elsewhere.
In the Autonomous Region of Bougainville most mature cocoa has survived, in part because CPB has not been there for as long.
High prices
Cocoa is currently selling for $3,120 (K9,560) per tonne, according to the International Cocoa Organisation. That suggests that, if the industry can return production to 2008 levels, it could generate more than K200 million in export revenue.
Almost all of PNG’s cocoa production is shipped overseas. With forecasts indicating a global cocoa shortfall of up to one million tonnes by 2020, there is significant potential for expansion.
‘There is no half-way-house and spending time every week is the only way to control CPB. Hence the industry slogan: “every pod, every tree, every week.”’
Revival project
Since the crisis hit, the Government of Papua New Guinea, with financial support from the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the European Union and strong involvement of private sector operators, has set up a US$100 million (K306 million) project to revive both the cocoa and coffee industries.
The cocoa component of the Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP) focuses on providing cocoa pod borer training as part of an integrated pest and disease management package.
Production rising
Since then, production has been slowly increasing. In 2014, it was just over 5,000 tonnes from East New Britain Province.
‘Management is key,’ Moxon, the Cocoa Board of PNG’s project manager dealing with the disease, tells Business Advantage PNG.
The PPAP’s Dr John Moxon. Credit: Malum Naru
‘CPB-tolerant cocoa hybrids have been developed, and knowledge is improving on the most effective management strategies to control the pest.
‘Farmers are able to manage the risk of CPB by adopting appropriate methods of pruning and disposing of pod waste. But they must remain vigilant, to ensure CPB is kept under control.’
Clones
By late 2015, some 1.1 million new cocoa clones had been planted under the PPAP project.
Cocoa yields have risen from 169 kilograms per hectare in 2011 to their current level of 376 kg per hectare. The aim is to produce 600 kg per hectare by 2019.
‘Cocoa clones increase in production from about 18 months old and reach a maximum after about four-and-a-half years, before plateauing for the next five years,’ says Moxon. ‘So the full benefits from these cocoa clones will be realised over the coming years.’
Vigilance
Moxon says the secret to dealing with CPB is to move from low management and input to high, or intensive, management. That way, the farmers can treat their cocoa blocks as sustainable and profitable farm businesses.
‘Farmers need to “go to work in their cocoa blocks every day” to receive the full benefit of the high-yielding, disease-tolerant and high quality cocoa clones,’ he says.
The cocoa pod borer moth. Credit: Qld Dept of Agriculture
‘There is no halfway house and spending time every week is the only way to control CPB. Hence the industry slogan: “every pod, every tree, every week”, he says.
High yields
When best management practices are introduced, farmers can get over 75 per cent of the total achievable yield without the need for insecticides, says Moxon.
‘Chemicals can increase this yield to almost 100 per cent. But care is needed by the farmer to use the chemicals safely, and to monitor and spray at the correct times in the crop cycle.’
Train the trainers
Eighty-seven trainers have been trained at a facility at Tokiala Plantation, outside Kokopo. They have then gone on to train 8,000 farmers in East New Britain and Bougainville.
Non-PPAP farmers are also encouraged to attend the field training so that more than just PPAP farmers benefit.
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I work for Forcert, an NGO based in Walindi WNB province. There is great potential for cocoa production in the Kandrian Gloucester district of which most of our cocoa farmers exist. Unfortunately most of them live in rural isolated pockets, practicing subsistence farming, we will need some support to train our WNB farmers to move from subsistence farming to a more intense farming system. Especially if they are to apply this, “every pod, every tree, every day” concept.
I agree with Dr Moxon’s secret. Every tree, every pod, every week. You’ll see the difference when not applying chemicals. Simple secret.
I like the comments by Dr John Moxon – ‘There is no half-way-house and spending time every week is the only way to control CPB. Hence the industry slogan: “every pod, every tree, every week.”
This is reality and local farmers need to grasp this.
I work for Nautilus Minerals based in Kavieng and we are in discussions with Cocoa Board and CCIPNG to bring back the Cocoa and Copra back to the family blocks. They were mainly affected by the CPB diseases and also the transport and marketing difficulty. I like the Trainer the Trainer concept and will look at for our local communities along the West Coast of Namatanai. And I surely will be sharing Dr Moxon comments above with our local farmers when we start to work with them.