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Impact Stories

Impact story 3 – Market for Village farmers

Livelihood training inspires farmer Kevin to lead money management training for young farmers.

Farmers in rural communities in Jiwaka Province rely on farming for their livelihoods, but many face challenges transitioning from semi-subsistence farming to market-oriented agribusiness. Coupled with limited financial services & products and poor money management skills, it can be overwhelming for farmers to grow and sustain their farming business.

Kevin Yehi, a lead farmer in Jiwaka is looking at addressing this issue, with his focus on youth farmers. In 2005, Kevin left formal employment in the city and headed to the province to set up his vegetable farming business. Kevin never imagined that his small farming business would one day inspire him to establish the Jiwaka Youth in Agriculture (JYIA) in Kudjip Rural Local Level Government, Angalimp South Waghi District.

“Seeing that there are decent earnings from farming the land, I decided to set up the youth association which supports young people venture into farming as a business.”

Fifteen years after the establishment, the association now supplies watermelon, capsicum and citrus fruits to the Mount Hagen Main Markets, Highlands Fresh, JP Investments, PAK Vegetables and to catering contractors. The organic produce is also sold to Porgera Mine and CPL Group through Highlands Fresh (Tininga Limited) and JP Investments.

There, however, needs to be more work on changing youth financial behaviour. Kevin explains that young farmers gain significant income from the vegetables they sell to the organised markets, but they misuse or poorly manage their income.

“My dream is to see more young people build and live in permanent houses and excel in agribusiness. I think critical money management training will help the youth manage their money well and live a fulfilling life.”

The Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) in partnership with the Market for Village Farmers (MVF) project and CARE International-PNG is training lead farmers like Kevin and other trainers to help build the capacity of rural farmers to improve their livelihoods.

Kevin was part of 25 trainers who underwent a two-week Village Farmers Livelihood Improvement Training of Trainers program in May 2021. The Village Farmers Livelihood Improvement Training addresses the attitudes often prevalent in farming households that result in women and youth unequal participation in important decision-making for the family, including managing family income and participation in training and learning opportunities.

“This training is added value for me as a lead farmer,” Kevin beams after his certificate presentation. “I can confidently train young farmers to approach farming as a family business.”

CEFI through the Market for Village Farmers Project will facilitate the access of 25,000 farming households to financial training, services and products across Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Simbu and Eastern Highlands in the Highlands region and Morobe and East New Britain provinces. CEFI will roll out money management skills, develop community-level savings and innovative lending schemes that will pave the way to support farmers to build a strong savings culture and grow their businesses into viable commercial businesses.

Market for Village Farmers (MVF) is executed by the Government of Papua New Guinea through the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) and implemented by Fresh Produce Development Agency, with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

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CEFI graduates trainees in financial literacy

CEFI for the first time issued student identification numbers to its graduating trainees for the purpose of accessing a financial literacy application that CEFI is developing and planning to launch soon.
Head Trainer Jill Pijui made the announcement during presentation of certificates for 19 participants in a week long EOI (Expression of Interest) Training of Trainers Training.
“We will be doing back tracking of all our trainees whether Retail Training or Training of Trainers for the mass issue of student ID numbers,” Ms. Pijui said.
Ms. Pijui explained that CEFI is in the process of developing a financial literacy application (FL App) where these FL App will act as a reminder tool for the 250,000 trainers trained by CEFI.
“The FL App will remind the trainees to do their savings plan, banking, basic household budget, tracking of income and expenses and cash flow training, all these topics were covered in their respective training,” Ms. Pijui added.
In order to access the FL App, Ms. Pijui explained that all trained trainers will have to have a student ID number in order to access the application.
The 19 participants from the EOI Training of Trainers trainees were also the first batch to receive their student ID at the end of their training.
The EOI Training of Trainers training saw 14 female participants among among 19 trainees to be certified as trainers to train financial literacy in their respective communities.
Both employed and SME training providers attended the training from Monday, May 08th to 11th, which comprised of two women from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a participant each from Wewak and Enga while the rest of the trainees were from Port Moresby.

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