The Market for Village Farmers Project (MVF) has assisted a number of partners, groups and farmers. One of them is Hagereto Farmers Association. 

“I believe that agriculture is beneficial to the community” said Aku Kulo the Managing Director for Hagereto Farmers Association. 

One of the projects sub-component is Fresh Produce Partnerships geared towards capacity building of fresh produce partnerships. 

Aku added that one of the roles of agriculture was to provide food for the community and importantly a source of income for the villagers allowing them to afford basic service fees like school and hospital. 

He is an active member of the Hagereto Association Incorporated which started in 2006 and has 109 active farmer members. The organizations members have produced large volumes of sweet potato and carrots and are considered one of the largest suppliers of sweet potato and carrots into Port Moresby’s local markets.

For many years the group had been operating with no office space. Most of its meetings were on ad hoc basis, with no proper setup to motivate the spirit of the association and assist it to grow as a professional organization despite it been registered as an association.

When Aku was introduced to the Value Chain Investment Program for Fresh Produce, he was confident that with the help of the project, the organization would progress. The project had programs to build capacity through its cost sharing coordination grants while providing funding for generators, IT and office furniture equipment for its partners.

Hagereto Association Inc. led by Aku accessed the 50/50 cost sharing grant in 2024 for office administration and built their first office space. The project helped them with 50% of the cost on building materials and also funded the full cost of IT, office equipment and a power generator.

Now farmers finally have a place to call as their office. Hagereto Association Inc. could finally function as a proper association dedicated to meeting the needs of the small rural farmers through a more organized platform.

Aku said the office setup makes hes administrative work much easier. He no longer has to travel to town just to print a notice which would cost him K2 for one page and K6 for the bus fare. Now that the association has a generator and printer, blackout have become a thing of the past and they have managed to save money from printing cost and travel expenses.