Enhancing PNG smallholder cocoa production through greater adoption of disease control practices

• Papua New Guinea Cocoa and Coconut Institute, Papua New Guinea
• MasterFoods Australia New Zealand, Australia
• Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea's (PNG) cocoa sector supplies two per cent of the world market. Most of the total PNG crop comes from around 70,000 smallholders. The cocoa industry is worth an estimated K168 million (AUD 87 million) a year based on 42,000 tons production. Smallholders usually grow cocoa as a supplementary income source with few inputs and low costs reducing the impacts of market price fluctuations. One reason for the low input and production costs is the lack of applicability of cocoa management recommendations. These recommendations date back to when the plantation industry, not smallholders, were the dominant producers. When this industry sector was broken up smallholders emerged to take the place of plantation producers. The relevance of recommendations for management, including those for disease control, declined along with the plantation sector.

Productivity levels endured a similar an associated decline. One of the major causes was, and remains, diseases. Pod rot and canker caused by Phytothphora palmivora, vascular die back streak and pink disease are the main inhibitors to productivity. New technologies, management approaches and resistant breeds against diseases are available but not widely adopted, or even known, among smallholders. Improving adoption of these approaches would significantly increase productivity and with it the income on offer to smallholders.

Sustainably increase the profitability of smallholder cocoa production in PNG through the development of effective and affordable strategies in partnership with farmers, to develop effective management options of the major disease threats to production, by:

documenting disease losses and smallholder knowledge, skills and attitudes to disease management at selected district sites.
fostering evaluation and adoption of a range of integrated disease management strategies in partnership with smallholders.
enhancing research and development expertise and strengthening industry linkages

Objective 1:
Consultation with buyers/exporters, Cocoa Board and village extension workers to provide updated information regarding cocoa production
Baseline economic, social and management data collected from representative farming communities
Extension staff and other relevant stakeholders trained in how to plan and survey farmers, establish and supervise on-farm evaluation and adoption activities and run extension activities

Objective 2:
Development of a 'menu' of integrated disease management options in consultation with farmers, to foster evaluation and adoption of culturally appropriate inexpensive 'disease control options ' based on the current knowledge
Farmer evaluation and adaption of disease control options
Foster improvement and adoption of IDM through participatory on-farm trials and evaluation plots beginning with development of culturally appropriate methods for work with village communities and farmers prior to wider dissemination of information

Objective 3:
Enhance the pathological capabilities at Kerevat, SRS, Madang and UniTech:
skills and needs audit CCI and UniTech pathology
enhance screening methodologies for disease resistance
enhance understanding of the causes and control options for cocoa yield decline and other emergent diseases
Strengthen participatory research and farmer extension capabilities in evaluation and adoption of disease control strategies.