Vanuatu

ACIAR’s program in the PICs will continue to develop in line with broader Australian development assistance priorities. There is an increasing awareness of the importance of changing economic and environmental situations, and the increased vulnerability of small developing island states if flexibility, resilience and adaptation to change are not achieved. The PICs face a range of challenges, including eroding tariff preferences, population and urban growth, migration of skilled labour, resource depletion and degradation, and risks from climate change, as well as high and fluctuating food and energy prices. Ineffective policy implementation is seen as a significant impediment to development and progress.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries sustain many households and these sectors will supply the majority of livelihoods and provide the main source of food security for PICs for the foreseeable future. In Solomon Islands local production of food crops contributes up to 71% of household income, while in Samoa and Tonga this figure is closer to 40%. Many smallholder farmers live in isolated rural communities that are dependent on household food production and intermittent crop, fish and small livestock sales. Transforming these systems into sustainable income-generating activities through improved productivity and marketing will enhance food security and self-reliance and reduce poverty. Key challenges for ACIAR and its partner agencies in working in the PICs include physical isolation of countries, poor transportation logistics, human and organisation capacity constraints, land tenure disputes and uncertainties, a lack of infrastructure, poorly developed supply chains, a lack of harmonisation between countries (e.g. in biosecurity laws) and the need to link with major domestic and international markets.

Participation in regional projects that address common problems can help overcome the limited capacity of many countries to engage in collaborative activities. ACIAR has a strong emphasis on working with Pacific regional organisations to ensure that R&D efforts are targeted towards agreed national and regional priorities and improvement in effective delivery of outputs. In partnership with the University of the South Pacific (USP), ACIAR has implemented a postgraduate training program designed to increase capacity in the Pacific region through scholarships for research associated with relevant ACIAR projects.

An expanded ACIAR–Pacific island countries program:

ACIAR will continue to establish and implement a larger suite of projects based on the projected 65% increase in resources to be allocated to the Pacific region that was initially reported in the 2008–09 AOP. The additional resources will cover:

• PARDI, which will address constraints in the value chains of selected high-value commodities of importance as sources of livelihood to Pacific islanders


• research to improve the profitability of the plantation (tree) crop sector, predominantly in Solomon Islands and particularly in oil palm and cocoa; plantation tree crops are a priority due to the potential for economic growth and increase in grower incomes from these crops; for example, the estimated revenue to Solomon Islands economy from palm oil was US$10 million in 2008;


• R&D and capacity building to remove production constraints could see this rising to over US$30 million by 2014


• new initiatives on research into agricultural technology transfer, especially for participatory research and extension approaches that underpin productivity, while sustaining the natural resource base; and


• capacity building, especially enhancement of the continuing USP postgraduate scholarship program, which emphasises the building of practical R&D skills through close involvement of students in ACIAR projects.

Close collaboration with SPC and USP, as the Pacific region’s leading research, technical support and capacity-building organisations, in the design and implementation of these initiatives will result in enhanced and broader impact from the outputs of previous, current and future ACIAR investments.