Looking for resources on kapiyok

Plants
1

Hello at ECHO,

I am seeking to identify a bush food called Kapiyok in Tok Pisin. The spelling might well be different to this

Already in month 3 of this El Nino event people across the PNG Highlands are foraging for kapiyok in what is left of their forest or bush regrowth. Their gardens are drying up, much of their sweet potato is infested with sweet potato weevil or simply has stopped growing. Bananas too are insect damaged

I guess that this is a tuberous crop but I really do not know

Ben Heyward

2

Ben, It is distressing to hear of the plight of the people. Do you happen to have any pictures of the plant. The name does not appear in any of my searches, but we have access to a very complete list of the food plants for PNG. Perhaps an image would help. Or do we have a network friend who can suggest other spellings, common names, or botanical names to check…

3

@Buzz do you or Ashley know the ID of this plant Ben shared about?

Ben, are there other resources or ideas we could help you with? I can share info about how to clean banana pups from insects during transplant, ways in the future to mitigate the SP weevil.

Sounds like people are looking for carbohydrate sources which tend to have the longest crop life cycle (tubers especially). Grain amaranth may be a quicker alternative.

Stacy

4

Also, please check this collection on ECHOcommunity

https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/6a8bb675-d43a-42d4-b500-a81ea3dd445e

Bruce French’s posters may help you identify the plant

Bruce suggested that rather than a root crop, kapiak in Tok Pisin is breadfruit.

5

Kapiyok is not a plant I’m familiar with.

6

Hello Stacy,
for most of the Highlands its too late for planting any more traditional or alternative staples, particularly a grain they are not familiar with and for which they have no seed

An amaranth the Engas, people of Enga Province in the central western Highlands, call Awa Yaku (Bruce French would have this listed but under a Tok Pisin name) is one of their traditional favourite green leafy vegies. Some people would be planting this in any swampy hollows they might have

Local ngos and faith based organisations have started doing awareness where they emphasise planting gardens in hollows and on sandbanks now showing in their local creeks and rivers. But, many creeks and even rivers have already dried up

The little ngo team that I am an offshore members have been doing awareness for some time. I will pass onto them that people should check all their surviving bananas for spraying with their ‘home brew’ insecticides asap

Thanks for the tip! Ben

my question about kapiak was because in a WhatsApp call from Kundiawa in Chimbu Province the Yanny Guman, the head of Community Development Association, CDA, told me that because they could no longer live from their gardens they were searching for kapiak in the forest

CDA is the strongest civil society ngo in Chimbu, has a history of partnership with Bread For the World, BROT, a major German dev’t agency and, along with BROT’s other PNG partners, is now kicking off drought amelioration workshops across their respective provinces

Wild breadfruit is uncommon in eastern Enga where I lived and continue to visit altho’ people around 1200m ASL have it around their houses to supplement their staple diet. Nevertheless, clearly right now it is important in the side valleys off the main range in Chimbu.

It will be heavily used in many areas across the Highlands and throughout the country. I presume it will be important in the Bismarck Sea provinces like Manus, New Ireland and East and West New Britain, maybe Bougainville as well

The little ngo team I work with, CDWAI based in Goroka, is already doing this on back of their ongoing Ecological Agriculture-Climate Change Adaptation Workshops (see cdwai.net)

Cheers! Ben