Research that works for developing countries and Australia

 

Tonga - Priorities

  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 Portfolio
  12. AusAid and Other Briefs
  13. Fellowship Statistics

Priorities

Priorities for ACIAR–PICs cooperation are reviewed and updated in regular consultation with relevant government, community and private sector stakeholders. In addition, ACIAR attends regional priority-setting meetings, including those of the Regional Conference of Heads of Agriculture and Forestry Services, and SPC Heads of Fisheries. ACIAR also participates actively in the Joint Country Strategy process of SPC, and undertook additional, closely targeted, stakeholder consultations during the design of the PARDI and other initiatives.

New projects will be considered under the following three thematic subprograms.

Subprogram 1: Improving food and nutritional security

  • Identification, development and adoption of new market-driven opportunities for the improvement of horticultural and tree crops
  • Development and adoption of integrated and more-sustainable production management packages for food staple, fruit, vegetable and plantation crops
  • Selection and adoption of staple crops with enhanced nutritional content
  • Integration of existing knowledge into information packages for food staples and fruit and vegetable crops
  • Capacity building and training through postgraduate scholarships linked to ACIAR projects

Subprogram 2: Integrated and sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry resource management and development

  • Stock status assessment and planning for the sustainable use of vulnerable inshore fisheries, with an emphasis on increased community-level management and co-management
  • New opportunities for inland aquaculture, including the domestication of promising indigenous species and integration into existing farming systems
  • Valuation of resources and economic analysis of smallholder and commercial fisheries
  • Domestication of multipurpose trees for forestry and agroforestry, including selection of suitable germplasm, silvicultural management and protection from pests and diseases
  • Value-adding processing of forest and fisheries products
  • Capacity building and training in PICs through postgraduate scholarships linked to ACIAR projects

Subprogram 3: Underpinning the competiveness of agriculture, fisheries and forestry value chains

  • Use of marketing research to help producers and other value-chain stakeholders identify market opportunities for agricultural commodities
  • Analysis of strategic supply chains and design and implementation of interventions to improve supply-chain efficiencies
  • Development and strengthening of agribusiness linkages, including analysis of market-chain constraints
  • Identification and analysis of processing and value-adding opportunities for crops, aquaculture and forestry products, and design and implementation of R&D interventions
  • Identification of quarantine and pest risk issues for crop germplasm requiring exchange between countries
  • Development and adoption of quarantine pest and disease control measures for crop exports

ACIAR’s Pacific program, through its three research emphases, contributes to the objectives of a number of the partnership priorities. In fisheries ACIAR will work in cooperation with AusAID’s Pacific fisheries strategy released in November 2007. This has the dual strategic objectives of maximising the flow of benefits to Pacific island peoples from sustainable commercial and subsistence fisheries and implementing effective ecosystem-based fisheries management for sustainability. AusAID will commence the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access (PHAMA) program in 2010. PHAMA will develop and progress market access submissions for export crop and livestock products, and support implementation of biosecurity and quadrant measures required to maintain market access. ACIAR will complement this through R&D work on productivity and marketing of target products, and through capacity building.