The Gildipasi, a local Community Based Organisation (CBO) recently organized and hosted a Mini-Agriculture and Micro, Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) exposition at the Yadigam Village in the Sumkar District in the Madang Province. Gildipasi acts as an umbrella organization for 10 CBOs from communities of Karkum, Mirap, Tokain, Simbukanam, Malas and Murukanam within the wards 3 and 6 of Sumgilbar LLG, Sumkar District of Madang. The event was organized with support from United States Agency for International Development’s under the Lukautim Graun Program (USAID LGP). Over 200 people attended the two-day event which coincided with the opening of the newly built resource center and it was an opportunity for the CBOs, women’s groups and partners to showcase their skills through the production of arts and crafts and display of agricultural produce to wider MSME audiences and business houses. The event provided an opportunity for local farmers to connect with non-traditional alliances, agricultural entities, and key provincial aggregators to access training on improved farming practices and quality assurance for market accessibility. Richard Munvi from Kamapim Limited, a private company specialized in buying vanilla and cocoa took time out to educate villagers about the farming techniques that will result in high yield for their crops. “We are here to provide basic advice and demonstrate farming techniques both for vanilla and cocoa that farmers may find useful when tending to their crops. The turn-up has been good.” “A lot of farmers have expressed interest in attending the trainings that we (Kamapim) conduct. Thank you Gildipasi and USAID for providing this opportunity for us to engage with the community,” Richard said. Owner of Kumul Organics Tina Manamb was also in attendance at the Mini Exposition, and she said coming out to the community was good exposure. “It gives us the opportunity to educate the people about the number of products, we produce such as virgin coconut oil, turmeric oil, noni oil, ginger oil, carrot oil and the organic soap. In most of our trainings, we emphasis on quality control and show the people how to get this right.” Tina Manamb had also announced that this expo has given the opportunity to meet with the oil producers especially women groups. Kumul Organics plans to extend its supply base to the communities within Sumkar District which in turn creates market access for the women groups for economic benefits. Kokonas Indastri Koporesen, Digicel and RD Cannery were among the business houses that put up stalls to show-case their products to the community. Negilopa Daisan from Milne Bay, married to a local from Yadigam village was happy that the expo provided the opportunity for her to sell some of her baskets. Negilopa has utilized the Mini-Agriculture and MSME Expo to earn money through the sales of arts and crafts. “I have the skills to weave baskets, and I am willing to share these skills with women in this community but access to market has been my problem. I’m happy that the mini expo has provided the market for me to sell my baskets. Thank you, USAID,” Negilopa said. A group of mothers from Karkar Island have been weaving bilums for sale but market access has been the problem until they attended the exposition. Group spokeswoman, Lyn Kale said market access is always problem but in attending the event, they were able to sell some of their Bilums and they were looking forward to when the exposition becomes an annual event. Executive Officers from both the Sumkar MP and Madang Governor attended the two-day event giving their undivided support for this exposition to become an annual event. As part of the sustainability Plan, USAID LGP is discussing with the Madang Provincial Government to make the Mini-Agriculture and MSME Expo an annual event under the provincial and local level government recurring economic priorities.