PT MORIFA Supports the Moringa Project of WVI Facing Covid-19 Situation in NTT
#BersamaMelawanCovid19 - People in NTT were startled when a spokesperson for the NTT Province Covid-19 Mitigation Acceleration Task Force announced a positive initial patient finding due to local transmission in Kupang City. This patient works day-to-day selling at Kupang Inpres Naikoten II Market.
The Inpres market is one of the centers of Kupang people's life. As one of the first and largest markets in NTT, various basic community needs are available in this market. Even in a pandemic situation, people still have to access the market.
According to the situation, PT MORIFA as the main partner of the Moringa (More Income Generated for Poor Families in Indonesia) project of Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) in NTT, also took part in the response undertaken by WVI. PT MORIFA then placed a unit of handwashing facilities with soap (CTPS) in Naikote II Inpres Market, which is located near from PT MORIFA's production house in Kupang City.
Since signing a cooperation agreement on September 10, 2019, PT MORIFA has been working with WVI to improve the welfare of moringa seed farmers with market-based interventions or Market System Development (MSD). Initially, moringa seeds which have no economic value are often discarded, since the guarantee of the purchase of IDR30,000 per kg from PT MORIFA, has sold at least 17 tons of Moringa seeds from various NTT islands, including the islands of Timor, Alor, and Lembata.
At least 1,500 farming families have experienced a change in income from this moringa seed intervention. PT MORIFA agreed to open a local production house and warehouse, recruit production staff, procure oil presses, until the seed drying machine to ensure the quality of the oil produced. Collaborating with WVI, PT MORIFA is also active in conducting outreach and training to farmers and Moringa seed collectors at the village level, as well as attending the 2nd International Symposium of Moringa in South Africa at their own expense to develop a business model that has been run in NTT.
Johnny Lone, as the director of PT MORIFA when informed that the CTPS facility with a capacity of 650 liters of water was installed, expressed his gratitude for the cooperation that had been going well.
"Hopefully it can be useful for the surrounding community," he said.
It is hoped that the MSD approach which aims to open market access so that it increasingly sided with poor farming families continues to bring change to the community in NTT through the current pandemic.
Written by: Hestin Klaas, Team Leader Moringa Project NTT Wahana Visi Indonesia
