Photo Story EU Delegation visit to Angoram District, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

The European Union Delegation to Papua New Guinea paid a visit to EU-STREIT Programme's implementation sites in East Sepik and engaged directly with the farmers and beneficiaries.

Led by Ambassador Videtič, the Delegation crossed the "Mighty Sepik River" and visited Pangin Village to overview the varied support given to cocoa farmers including a cocoa nursery.

Cheering the visit, the visibly contented villagers performed an inspiring welcome ceremony, enriched with their genuine cultural heritage.

Addressing the community, Ambassador Videtič highlighted that the EU Funded STREIT Programme aims to help the farmers generate more income thereby improving school and health services for their kids and families.

Interacting with the farmers, the Delegation engaged with and was equally briefed by the community members and Programme staff on the steps taken to empower cocoa farmers through training and provision of inputs.

Two lead farmers, trained by the EU-STREIT Programme, also demonstrated how they were enabled to perform budding and revive their pest-infested cocoa gardens using pest-tolerant seedlings.

Travelling along Mighty Sepik River's tributaries, the mission also had the opportunity to witness how the hard-working Water Maintenance Groups (WMG), trained, equipped, and recruited by the Programme, helping river-bank communities to pass through debris-blocked waterways, to access markets, towns, and health posts.

Supporting farmers to forge ahead along the value chains is a major task envisaged by the Programme.

Training cocoa fermentary owners is crucial for building the capacity of the rural communities to carry out quality and quantity value chain activities, from production to marketing.

The EU Delegation attended a Cocoa Assessors Training, which brought together 50 cocoa fermentary owners from Angoram District.

The team also addressed, interacted with, and received comments shared by the participants.

The team also visited, greeted, and overviewed the works of a Road Maintenance Group, trained, equipped, and recruited by the Programme in Angoram.

The EU-STREIT PNG Programme, being implemented as a UN Joint Programme (FAO as the leading agency, and ILO, ITU, UNCDF and UNDP as partners), is the largest grant-funded Programme of the European Union in the country and the Pacific region. The Programme aims to help improve the lives of the people from East Sepik and Sandaun provinces, by focusing on increasing sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas through improved economic returns and opportunities from cocoa, vanilla and fishery value chains while strengthening and improving the efficiency of value chain enablers, including the business environment, and supporting sustainable, climate-proof transport and energy infrastructure development.

For General Inquiries: PNG-EU-STREIT@fao.org | For Media Inquiries: Amir.Khaleghiyan@fao.org

Appreciate

Credits:

FAO, EU-STREIT Programme