Julia Patrick is a cocoa farmer from Nagobis Village in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Julia has a disability that impairs her mobility and considering the physically demanding and labour-intensive work that farming requires, she has difficulty going about the upkeep of her cocoa block.
She is however, now benefiting from Australia Government-funded Commodity Support Facility (CSF) project.
The CSF projects supports training, capacity building and financial assistance to increase cocoa production quantity, improve quality and strengthen market access.
It also fosters more inclusive economic and agricultural development in Bougainville with a focus on women, youth, and people with disabilities.
Through the support of the CFS Project, the Department of Primary Industries is running through training on Integrated Pest and Disease Management training and the Cocoa Budding.
This has helped Julie find a way to nurse, plant and manage cocoa clone trees which are shorter, with higher yields and more disease resistant than hybrid trees, enabling her to successfully manage her plot despite her disability.
The improvements have been so successful she plans to expand her cocoa block to farm and sell more beans and increase her income.
“When we attended the trainings on cocoa budding, I felt motivated to continue tending to my plots with these new skills.”
She has now shared the skills with her family members, and they have also benefited.
“For a person with difficulty walking like me, clone cocoa is easy to manage and is shorter than other tree varieties. It is easier for me to prune and reach the pods during harvest time.”
“Now I am harvesting my clone cocoa, and I am selling cocoa beans.”
“It is the start of something, and my dream is to expand my block and plant more clone cocoa.”
“I am also happy that I am contributing to my family’s finances and basic needs.”
Julia and her family are member of the Etanaba 93 Farmers Cooperative in Bana District, which is one of 50 cocoa farming cooperatives in AROB that have been benefited from CFS Project.
Since 2016, over 50 farmer cooperatives including 2500 small-holder farmers have benefited from K35M in CSF grants.