Doing the hard yards in small holder rubber in Manus

 IN the last Papua New Guinea census in 2011, a total of 7.2 million persons were enumerated in 1.3 million citizen households in the country.

This gives an average household size of around 5.5 persons per household. Manus province had a population of 60,480 people with 10,360 households but now 10 years has passed since and the population would have certainly grown. According to the 2021 National Budget Volume 1 document, Covid-19 had an impact on the PNG economy in 2020 leading to a job loss of 35 per cent and both the private and the public sectors, including the agriculture sector, declined by 12 per cent.

However, farmers all around the country have not given up with major strides taken in industries relating to cocoa, coffee, vanilla, etc. Rubber has been one such industry that has gone through a lot and has still maintained a stronghold as a key cash crop in PNG’s economy.

Rubber’s long history

Published research by Hirohata (2017) point out that natural rubber has had a long history in Papua New Guinea since the early 1900s because the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis has been planted here since 1903. There are two technically specific rubber (TSR 10) factories in the country, one natural rubber estate in Doa, Central province while another, privately owned in Western Province and they export some 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes every month.

Individual farmers are doing their bit too to make sure they maintain, harvest and sell their rubber. One such farmer is Mark Patlau, 59, of Liap village in Manus Province. Liap village is on the northern coastline of Manus and is situated in the Pomotu Ndrehet Kurti Andra (PNKA) Local Level Government area. According to the last national census in 2011, PNKA holds around 12.2 per cent of the total Manus population of 60,480 with an average household of 6.4 people.

Patlau is a humble and hardworking smallholder rubber farmer who has 500 trees on his land. According to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) website, Patlau is one of around 60,000 rubber farmers in eight provinces in the country. These include Central, Gulf, New Ireland, Manus, Northern, Western, East Sepik and West Sepik.

He first planted his rubber trees in 1987 but did not utilise this cash crop. However, in 2012, the Manus Division of Agriculture and Livestock initiated a training for 15 farmers and gave them 200 cup holders each and a tapping knife. Using this, he begun harvesting his rubber trees. He explained that it took around two hours for the latex to collect in each cup. He harvests what scientists call a natural rubber polymer known as ‘cup lump’ rubber. Cup lump is a coagulated rubber that is produced when the latex is left uncollected and allowed to coagulate under bacterial action.

Once collected, he stores the rubber in the plantation area. He cannot take it home as the smell emanating from the latex is foul, like rotten fish. After a few weeks, he collects all the rubber that has dried and carries them from his plantation back to his house. It is rigorous work carrying the harvested rubber from the plantation area to home as he has to go back and forth multiple times carrying heavy sacks.

 His extended family also provide a helping hand. His first harvest in 2012 was 50 kg and then over subsequent years his harvests grew. He has never looked back, with his minimum of 120 kg and maximum of 360kg harvested since. He always transports the cup lump rubber to Lorengau where he sells it at the Manus Division of Agriculture and Livestock at Tamat for K3 per kilogram.

It hasn’t been an easy job harvesting the rubber for this father of six but this year he has gone to another level. This year, Patlau and his nephew Ari Longowei, 35, spent three months harvesting close to two two tonnes of latex from 300 of his 500 trees. He couldn’t harvest from all his trees due to the shortage of cups. It is no mean feat considering it was only a two-man operation. But the journey is not complete as he now has to bring the rubber to Lorengau town to sell.

Big challenges

While Patlau continues this labour-intensive work, his challenges are even greater. Most problematic has been the lack of cups in the province to capture the latex and secondly, there are high transportation costs when he has to bring his rubber to Lorengau town to sell. He has to hire a boat to transport his rubber to town, further digging into his pockets.

At the national level, rubber nursery development has been allocated K1 million under the 2021 National Budget but that money has not trickled down to farmers like Patlau in Manus. Even to make matters worse, earlier this year, money meant for agriculture in PNG was squandered such as the recent revelations in the mass media that K22.7 million that was misused.

While rubber is a viable crop for farmers in PNG, in my opinion, there needs to be more government funding allocated to finance rubber nurseries, processing infrastructure developed or provided to small holder farmers, extension efforts improved and maybe small loan programmes initiated to assist framers establish proper rubber blocks on their customary land.

Only then can smallholder farmers like Patlau who live in rural areas truly experience the true value of their work, add cash flow to the local economy and support their families as well.

A visit to Lowa village

Walked from the house three hours to visit Lowa village market and the walked back - a total of six hours. My phone said 13 km but I swear it must have been further than that.

My escorts - Peechee and Ku-uh

When we crossed from Liap to Lowa, we entered into the Lelemadih-Bupichupeu LLG area. Liap is in the Pomotu Ndrehet Kurti Andra LLG area of Manus so we literaly crossed one local government area into another. It wasnt a great market today but i got betelnuts, fish, mumu tapiok and some donuts. I say it wasnt great because it wasnt as busy as could be. Usually the place would be packed with people from Liap, Lowa, Mwaramuan, Lopahan, Drayau, Ahus and Powat 

The village soccer field is next to the market. Wanpla selfie pastaim!

Not too many people came today but I still got my betelnuts!

Then strolled to the edge of the village where there is a famous hole in a stone island. As you stand there you look eastwards towards Mwaramuan, Lopahan, Drayau and Powat villages respectively. People from these villages including Liap and Ahus Islanders congregate every Saturday here at the market.

One of the best things about this village are the clean 'streets' which cut through and across the whole village. 

The seashore at the the village

Im trying to pose while someone interjects..lol

The streets! Thats me and papa at the back

The village is virtually at sea level and is also part of the swamp area. There are mangroves at the back of the village so there are definitely crabs and seashells around. 

Just lying about in the mud at the village

Look at these shells!

 One of the most significant structure is a stone just across the seashore looking towards Lopahan village on the east. This stone rises above the sea line and has a whole - a perfect circle - which may have been carved out long ago. Here is a picture of the stone.

The stone is furthest is the one that has a hole on it.

Anyway, that is my story today. Life does really go on....

Nyapio islanders in Manus start a guest house

 MANUS is around 2,100 square kilometers in land area and amongst its vast open 220,00 square kilometer seas, lie many islands, some inhabited and others not. While some of these islands are large and can sustain multiple villagers like Lou, Rambutso, Pak and Baluan, others like Nyapio are so small no one would think people lived on them.

Nyapio island, more popularly known as Johnston Island, today, has 14 households and a population of just under 50 or so people who call this remote island their home. The island, on the south coast of Manus is part of Ward 6 of the Pobum local level government area. Nyapio is around a kilometer long, around 300 meters wide and has sparse vegetation. These Titan language speaking people do not have a trade store, a school or an aid post on the island. Their livelihood and major source of income is fishing. They fish from the sea and then sell their catch to villages along mainland Manus or to Lorengau for cash or exchange fish with the Lou islanders for fresh vegetables.

Not much grows on the island.  

On the island, they have coconuts, banana, taro and very few sago trees but nothing much grows here as the island is just three to four metes above sea level. Even water is scarce on this island and when the seasonal trade winds become harsh, food from the sea becomes even harder to find making hunger an issue at times. The Nyapio sail on outrigger canoes to mainland Manus or the surrounding islands of M’buke, Lou or Baluan or sail to the nearest health service provider at Patu Health Centre on the mainland of Manus some two to four hours away.

One person I talked to explained that once, he had to take two children who were very sick most probably with malaria, with their mothers, and sail on his outrigger canoe all the way to Lorengau town. They began the journey in the middle of the night using the stars as their guide. All along the journey, the mothers kept keeping a cold press on the children’s bodies just to keep their fever at bay for that three-hour journey on the high open seas. They arrived in Lorengau, just as daylight broke out.

While their story seems sad and difficult, it is what makes them resilient in the face of constant hardship and continued difficulties. I usually write on my blog lopoki.com about community initiatives in Manus so I was pleasantly surprised when I was invited by the community in September to come see a small project they had started early this year.

You see, being resilient means that when everything seems to be going wrong or difficult, strong people emerge and stand up to provide solutions to the problems faced by their communities. The Nyapio people are resilient. They sat down and thought long and hard about how they could solve some of their community problems. They knew that the island would, in its simplest and mundane form, still provide the solution.

They decided to build a community-based resort of sorts that would provide a means of an income to support their livelihood on the island. They had this understanding that through such an enterprise, much more would come and eventually a school or an aid post would become viable on their little island.

In that way, they wouldn’t have to send their kids away to the mainland of Manus for months on end to gain basic education or sail the high open seas just to have access to life saving medication. The young elite of the village, who live in Port Moresby, supported this move and began by chipping in cash and kind. Around 10 young men on the island eventually built two bungalows – one completed – using traditional materials like wood, sago leaves, bamboo thatched walls, etc., while the other, still to complete, has iron roofing. They are also building a septic toilet and shower room too. They sourced the raw materials from mainland Manus and shipped the rest of the materials from Lorengau.

A community resort

In November, through my small not-for-profit non-governmental organisation called Lopoki Inc, I organised a three-day basic housekeeping training for 10 of the locals. The community resort fully funded the three-day training on their island. Lopoki worked in partnership with the Manus Provincial Government’s Commerce Division and the Manus Training Centre to carry out the training. The Division of Commerce through their business development officer Pius Kuweh and Manus Training Centre’s Tourism and Hospitality instructor Albert Pih were both at the island to conduct the sessions.

Pih focused his training on three main areas of housekeeping (storeroom and stock control), accommodation and guest laundry, and room servicing. The training provided basic housekeeping skills to the participants and increased their knowledge and capacity to manage guests.

I can already see that the community has taken the initiative to build two semi-permanent buildings housing four rooms for around eight guests when they visit the community based resort.

The Nyapio islanders have proven that they want to bring change to their community and so they worked with Lopoki Inc. to ensure this training occurred.

The very fact that they do not have an aid post or even an elementary school speaks volumes about the suffering that they have had to go through all these years. It is inspiring to see the islanders stand on their own two feet and build something that will sustain them as a community.

If you want to visit Nyapio Island Getaway Resort, please visit the website: https://nyapioislandgetawayresort.com for more information.

You won’t regret your decision to visit. If you do visit, please commit yourself to give something back to the island with a programme or session while you are there through your passion, education and work so that greater cultural learning is mutual.

Village Living

One of the best things about living in the village is the fresh earth food - kaukau, cassava, banana and taro. It feels good when you eat from the earth you have cleared and tilled. 
 

Just having a cup before the sun goes down. 

Even having a wash in the river beside the house is refreshing

Yes village living can be a healthy option as it provides an environment for us to connect with out culture, traditional practises and extended families. But it must be noted that living in rural and remote part of Papua New Guinea can be unpleasant experience if you are sick or need medical attention. This is because many vital government services are lacking in these rural areas. Yes we own the land and do whatever we want on the land but we cannot fully utilise our land and live on it if the government of the day cannot uphold and sustain basic government services like schools, clinics, roads and bridges. 

Life is tough in Manus!

Sago Beating

 This week is sago beating time! You have to do this job of beating sago so you can have food.