Hula grandfather gives up career, strikes gold with vanilla

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Story by Hilda Wayne of STRU

IMAGINE vanilla growing wild and the ‘green gold’ hanging from virgin rain forest vegetations just like any other forest plants. This is what one Hula man from Babaka village in the Central Province did with his vanilla all because he lacked knowledge about the plant since he started planting in the early 1990’s. But now he is ready to reap a harvest that will be the envy of many hard working vanilla farmers throughout Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Rupa Tegana gave up a career as an education officer and started planting vanilla in his village of Babaka in 1994.

The vanilla he planted started growing well but with absolutely no knowledge of the plant, his vanilla started to grow wild and flowered at will but despite his lack of knowledge, Mr. Tegana would not allow for the destruction of this plant in his land and it was not until 1998 that he realized he was actually sitting on a pot of gold.

Hula Vanilla Man - Mr. Rupa Tegana showing the fruit of his labour

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Currently, he has 1,000 well bred and groomed vanilla trees which are already bearing fruit.

With his help his own family of two brothers and three sisters have another 1,000 vanilla trees spread among themselves with between 300 to 400 vanilla trees in the little blocks of land.

Mr. Tegana has formed an association called the Hood Point Vanilla Growers Co-operative Society comprising of villagers from Babaka, Irupara and Raikao in the Hula area.

Currently the association has 60 members who are farmers who also get free vanilla cuttings from Mr. Tegana’s vanilla farm to plant in their own land. (He distributes free cuttings that measures almost a meter. A quarter of this is usually bought for K2.00 in Port Moresby city).

Wild Vanilla beans?….Mr. Tegana’s vanilla finds a bed on a large tropical forest tree.

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The farmers Mr. Tegana has helped have already started planting vanilla.

His knowledge about the value of this plant has obviously given him tremendous insights about vanilla and apart from distributing free cuttings, he conducts trainings for the rural Hula farmers.

Mr. Tegana has done three training at his own expense without any government support and he is planning the fourth training for early next year, 2004.

More people are very keen on wanting to have knowledge of vanilla farming.

In Raikao, people have already planted 800 cuttings and more farmers are traveling away from their villages to look for more vanilla cuttings to bring back to plant in their own farms.

Vanilla for a canopy….people walk under a canopy of vanilla and are astounded by what they see.

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Apart from vanilla, he has about two hectares of rice crop which is ready to be harvested and there are bags of rice under his humble home waiting to be milled. He has no rice mill and even access to rice mill is very hard at this time.

The former non formal education officer is also writing up a short course on vanilla farming from his personal experience and the short course consists of modules specially designed for the Hula people.

This Hula man’s success story was witnessed by officers of Asian Development Bank’s Employment-Oriented Skills Development Project (EOSDP) whom he invited to his farm last week.

Mr. Rupa Tegana speaks to EOSDP officials about his work in rural Central Province.

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The purpose of the officers’ visit was to help identify needs of the Hula people and assist in writing courses which will cater for their needs. The project will also provide expert advice and support in terms of training.

“It seems the struggle by this simple villager shows the complete lack of government services, advice and expertise given by the Central Provincial government and the National Government.

EOSDP’s Skills Training Resource unit Director Mr. Martin Bai who headed the EOSDP team to Hula said it was time genuine farmers such as Mr. Tegana are given due recognition and help for their hard work.

Family Affair….One of Mr. Tegana’s sisters and children work on rice grown and dried at their family yard.

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“Where are the so called DPI officers and business development officers who have been entrusted with the role of assisting these simple people?” Mr. Bai asked.

He said it was time the Central Provincial government wakes up and join the ADB project by paying its contribution to the Skills Development Trust Fund (SDTF) so that people will benefit from the fund.

Plans are also underway to make Central province become a participating province which will enable rural farmers to apply for loans available through SDTF.

– Mr. Tegana and a relative shows what happens when hard work is put into growing vanilla.

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Further insights into the cash crop that is really taking PNG by storm will reveal that East Sepik province is the leading producer of vanilla with Momase being the highest producing region followed by New Guinea Islands.

Vanilla farming is growing at a very rapid rate and has drawn a lot of interest from rural communities in the Papua and Highlands regions as well.

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For more information contact:

Address: ADB - EOSDP
P.O.BOX 1097
Waigani,
National Capital Distirict

Phone: (675) 323 2633
Facsimile: (675) 323 0944
or e-mail Hilda Wayne on - E-mail: hwayne@eosdp.org.pg



Healthy beans from Mr Tengana's vanilla farm