USAID supports mini exposition in Madang Province
News Highlights November 10, 2023
The Mini-Agriculture and Micro, Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) exposition held from October 31 to November 1, was successfully staged at Yadigam village in the Sumkar District in Madang Province. The event was organized by Gildipasi, a local Community Based Organisation (CBO) with support from United States Agency for International Development’s under the Lukautim Graun Program (USAID LGP). 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 mini exposition provided 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. It provided business houses to show-case their products, drawing interest from both villagers and visitors who attended the event. Over 200 people attended the two-day event which coincided with the opening of the newly built resource center. The event also provided an opportunity for farming communities to link to non-traditional alliances, agricultural entities, and key provincial aggregators for training on improved farming practices and quality assurance for market accessibility. 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. Richard Munvi from Kamapim said “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.”
Contressha Ikomi from Mama Bank said “we received a lot of interest from the villagers with most wanting to know about the loan facilities and the services we provide. About nine, mostly women opened new bank accounts and I’m expecting a good turn up tomorrow.”
Owner of Kumul Organics, Tina Manamb said “coming out to the community was a good exposure as 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 was 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,” she 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 “having access to market has been our problem. But thank you, USAID, we were able to sell some of our bilums and we look forward to this market, when this 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.
