24 Jun 2003

Bougainville agriculture set back by strong winds

4:22 pm on 24 June 2003

A Bougainville politician is calling on the Papua New Guinea government to conduct an assessment on damage to cocoa crops, homes and gardens by strong winds that lashed the island province for 12 hours last week.

The Post Courier reports Central Bougainville MP, Sam Akoitai saying that Bougainville's cocoa rehabilitation programme involving 10 million hybrid cocoa seedling may have been destroyed by last week's wind storm.

Mr Akoitai says the damage will have an impact on Bougainville's economic situation and that it needs the immediate attention of the provincial and national governments.

The paper says roofs of houses were lifted off, gardens wrecked and cocoa and coconut trees uprooted by the winds.