Research that works for developing countries and Australia

 

Papua New Guinea - Country Strategy

  1. Overview
  2. Country Strategy
  3. Priorities
  4. Key Program Managers
  5. Current Projects
  6. Concluded Projects
  7. Achievements
  8. Relevant Publications
  9. Country News and Stories
  10. Project Locations
  11. Country Office
  12. Country Portfolio
  13. AusAid and Other Briefs
  14. Fellowship Statistics

Country Strategy

The main strategy of ACIAR’s program in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is to secure improvements in food supply and rural incomes for smallholder farmers through increased productivity and enhanced access to markets and services, as they make up the bulk of the population and the bulk of the poor. This is in line with the PNG Government’s Medium Term Development Strategy to promote economic growth in the rural sector (comprising agriculture, forestry and fisheries).

This strategy aims to create an enabling environment for smallholder farmers to mobilise their own resources to increase productivity and generate higher incomes. Thus, the ACIAR program is based on, and committed to, improved adoption of innovations that respond to real needs and deliver meaningful benefits to PNG smallholder farmers. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the research must be economically, culturally, socially and environmentally relevant to the smallholder farmers. In particular, ACIAR research in PNG has a focus on the role of women in agriculture from a variety of perspectives, such as marketing access and constraints to uptake of new technologies. There are emphases on plantation crops, root and other horticultural crops, forestry and fisheries. These include exported and domestically traded commodities that generate smallholder income and underpin improved food security and economic development.

The ACIAR program includes tightly linked clusters of projects that address problems faced by major commodities such as sweetpotato, coffee, oil palm and cocoa. Program design also encourages private sector, industry and NGO linkages in the design and delivery of activities. Through addressing issues of biosecurity and sustainable management of land, forest and fisheries resources, sustainability of renewable resources is encouraged. The program has a strong emphasis on capacity building, with high priority given to both training within projects and postgraduate training. In addition to the project expenditures shown above, $1.0–1.5 million is invested by ACIAR annually on training in PNG.

A key component of Australia’s involvement with the agriculture sector in PNG is the AusAID and ACIAR partnership. AusAID co-invests in ACIAR-managed project activities, while ACIAR works closely with relevant AusAID programs, particularly the Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility.