The more I see the more I realise that fertilizer deficiency problems are very common. It seems to be one reason why people stop growing; nutritional problems, plants don't grow well, the yield and quality deteriorates, finally the grower stops growing, because nobody knows what is happening and so can't advise the grower on what to do. One of the problems here is that the money is in supplying the plantation crops, so the small growers don't get much help from the agricultural wholesale companies who are just interested in turning a buck. I've been working with a guy (Steve) who works with one of the companies and has been here all his working life. He's a mine of information and has been helping me sort out what chemicals are available and so on. Its taken me a quite a while to find out who and what sells what products and what are available. Of course cost is an issue but some wholesalers are willing to repackage products into affordable containers for small growers.
There is no central register of chemicals, Agchem manual, or any oversight on what is sold. Labelling on containers is pathetic. No health and safety around agchem use, etc. One of my jokes is that we could send the H&S people over from NZ. It would give them something to do and get them out of NZ'ers hair.
We have some more training days coming up for the trainees and I've tee'd up with Steve to run a training session on sprayer safety, use and handling of Agchemicals, in October, when he's back from holiday. Elizabeth and I have talked about also running a training course for established growers, as most of them don't have any training at all, so are not very confident in handling pesticides and don't understand the types of chemicals that are available.
One interesting development in the last week is regarding finances. The Provincial Government, FPDA and the Market authority signed an agreement back in early 2016 to work together to develop the vegetable growing in the area of ENB. The market authority were to develop cool store facilities and improve the marketing of produce. FPDA gained the most money (1,200,000 K over 5 years) and were to help develop the growing industry.
Elizabeth has been talking about this since I arrived and expecting some money from the agreement. I went to the Provincial offices with her for a meeting with a planning officer last week. They wanted an update on what was going to happen before releasing funds. I spent some time coaching Elizabeth on what she could write in the update. It certainly looks as if FPDA will get some funds. I suspect another extension officer will be employed to do the leg work that is needed. We'll wait and see!
We visited a larger grower last week and who had some interesting things to see. He has grown before but gave up and is now on another block of land and trying lots of different things. It was interesting to see some fertilizer problems showing up!
Jerry one of the trainees(pictures in earlier blogs) and the group of villagers he is working with has started harvesting melons, so there was great excitement! We need to go and visit him again soon as I've picked up on some problems around accountability, over the way things are being run.
Elizabeth talking to William about some brown onions he's growing from transplants. The young guy is one of Williams relatives. This is the only place I've seen cats in PNG. They had a couple of kittens they were feeding because the mother had died. Elizabeth wanted to take one home! It was a very attractive property; as you can see they had flowers growing everywhere.
This Aibeka (a traditional crop) showing signs of a deficiency. The leaves in the foreground are spindly and narrow. The leaves on the plants in the background are showing yellowing around the edges, the leaves are drooping at the tips and slightly wrinkled. Leaves should be like the plants in the background; but bigger. I think its Potassium and or magnesium deficiency.
Photo across the crop shows a definite pattern the deficiency so its likely to be a macro nutrient. A similar pattern was observable on some corn further down the paddock. I asked William about the previous cropping history. He blamed the balsa company as there was a balsa crop in the land at one stage. I know that the balsa company wouldn't try and short change the fertilizer. When challenged he said that after the balsa was harvested some villagers "took" over the block for their gardens, until he managed to move them on. That explains the pattern a bit better.
On another note, Independence day is coming up next Sunday (holiday on Monday)and it looks as if its going to be a big event, with parades and performances. We were talking to the waitress at KBB (our favourite coffee place) and she was saying that there was a large group of Japanese including the Japanese Prime Minister coming to Kokopo in the coming week. The intention is to have a Reconciliation service on Independence day, and lay some wreaths on the war memorial in Rabaul. The Japanese didn't behave very well towards the locals during their occupation in WW2, so the service is to make amends. There is also a large contingent of Japanese volunteers working in PNG, some in Kokopo, which is part of the making amends. The Japanese, like NZ offer scholarships and training for PNG people.
Christine:
Following on from the 'icebreaker' time we had with the Japanese volunteers last Saturday we twigged to the fact one of our VSA's had a birthday the following friday. We had a party for her on Saturday night out here in Seaview. We didn't have to travel anywhere or worry about getting back safely - such a relief. We piled plates with the delicious left over food and took them out to the compound guards.
As the spring turns to summer we are noticing the trees flowering and the birdlife returning. A real treat. Sunrise is around 6am so not too early a chirpy wake up call. Very noisy now around 5:00pm as the birds return to nest. The heavens opened up and the rains came down from a new direction on wednesday. The builder appeared on friday and repaired the roof. As he was leaving he noticed the ceiling over our bed was in the process of letting go! The continual movement of the ceiling fan may have loosened the nails. When he had fixed the ceiling he kindly cleaned said fan which probably hadn't been cleaned for a year or two.
Two freight ships broke down this last week so milk stocks were down to powder or 250ml for $2.75, eggs ($5.50/dozen) and cheese ($16.50 500g) were getting scarce and apples were down to Granny Smiths only. Makes life interesting. New stocks of milk that arrived on saturday were selling at 6.95kina or $3.50 a litre.
Remember if you would like to donate to the work of VSA you can contact Denise Aquino at daquino@vsa.org.nz, or donate on our Everydayhero fundraising site; nikoloff's in Kokopo.
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