FPDA Morobe Extension Officer Conrad Anton (left)
Determination and hard work has seen the emergence of a successful woman farmer in Boana, in the hinterlands of Morobe Province.
After her father, a local chief, died in his prime 11 years ago, Margaret left her catering job at the prestigious Lae Yacht Club to be with her widowed mother and siblings in the village.
Margaret had completed Catering and Hospitality studies at Malahang Technical College, and hoped to work in the hospitality industry. She did well and was even offered a job at the Lae International Hotel but regretfully turned it down and went home to start helping her aunt run a small guest house at Boana station.
In 2017 she started working on a model farm at Boana station under the FPDA model farm concept and immediately felt that this was her calling. At age 27, she said she had done the hard yards already and felt it was time to progress into the future.
The following year she left the model farm and started her own nearby, supplying potato, round cabbage, lettuce, pakchoi, tomato, spring onion, eggplant and even peanuts to the open markets.
“I upload my farm produce on Facebook and because of the quality, more people are interested but I cannot deliver to them due to mobility constraints. Lae is quite far from Boana but even then, all my crops are sold out within the station even before I take them out to Lae market,” she said.
Margaret said she enjoys farming because it was an easy way to make money and become her own boss. So far Margaret has been selling pakchoi to Lae markets while all the other crops are being sold at the Boana station.
“Workers who live at the station walk down to the farm and buy their vegetables on the farm. Sometimes I don’t have what they want but most times they are satisfied with what they buy from me,” said Margaret proudly.
With advice and assistance from FPDA Senior Extension Officer Conrad Anton, Margaret and her siblings are developing a massive potato farm on the hilltops of Boana. According to Mr. Anton, this would be the biggest potato farm in Boana and it could make a good revenue for Margaret and her family.
In one recorded harvest, Margaret sold 510 kilos of potato, 10 kilos of capsicum, 310 kilos of round cabbage, and 870 kilos of Chinese cabbage fetching a total of K1, 947.
Margaret is a no-nonsense young woman who is determined to succeed in what she has already started.
“I have knowledge on the hospitality and catering industry and my dream is to build a guest house from the money I make at my farm. I will harvest my own crops to cook at my guest house for my guests,” she confidently said.
FPDA provides technical and management advice on how to grow crops and save money, and develops farmers under its Village Extension Workers (VEW) program.