Tea Blocks Popular
p. 75 · Read in the full issue
One hundred and seventeen blocks of land offered for lease recently by the Papua-New Guinea Land Board for tea production in the Western Highlands attracted 225 applicants from the Chimbu and Western High lands areas. The blocks are at Konde pina and Kindeng West, in the Wahgi Valley. They vary from nine to 16 acres. Settlers will be encouraged to plant a minimum of two acres of tea as the main cash crop within the first five years, develop subsistence and sweet potato gardens for local markets, build houses, construct ponds for fish farming, and take a subsidiary interest in poultry farming and pig breeding.
Photo shows farmers preparing the ground for kau kau planting as a means of improving the soil before tea planting.