Papua New Guinea - Priorities

1. Overview
2. Country Strategy
3. Priorities
4. Key Program Managers
5. Current Projects
6. Concluded Projects
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Priorities

ACIAR has a formal program of consultations with PNG to establish priorities in research collaboration, as well as annual smaller consultations and industry workshops to finetune these priorities. A record of the most recent set of formal consultations, held in May 2008, is provided at under Partner country priorities/Papua New Guinea. The ACIAR PNG portfolio emphasises the disciplines of agricultural systems (including postharvest activities); production and protection of root, horticultural and tree crops; and fisheries and forestry. Training priorities are mainly addressed through targeted activities within projects, although support for postgraduate degrees in Australia and an in-country scholarship scheme at the University of Technology, Lae, are the main contributors to capacity development. The priorities are grouped under the following thematic programs.

Subprogram 1: Addressing social, cultural and policy constraints to the adoption of agricultural technologies

• Interventions to overcome cross-cutting social and cultural constraints to smallholder household profitability/productivity based on analysis of:
  • land mobilisation issues (tenure, registration, titles, communal)
  • applicability of new labour mobilisation models beyond the cocoa and oil palm industries
  • impact of smallholder involvement in participatory action research activities and other group learning processes on adoption of technical innovations
  • effects of cultural factors on ability to replicate successful entrepreneurship in agriculture
  • analysis of income utilisation, savings incentives and microfinance access in smallholder families, particularly with respect to establishing criteria for successful engagement of women
• Analysis of how current production and marketing systems impact on women in terms of efficiency and equity, and the role and effectiveness of women's groups in rural industries
• Assessment of the role of cottage industries in contributing to livelihoods and household cash flow and complementing engagement in formal markets and the national economy
• Economic assessment of the rice trade and rice-based farming systems, including national demand (role of production and imports) and potential returns from investing in technical improvements
• Improved crop water management under climate variability and change, including:
  • management of water availability to meet market demand and food security
  • identification of drought-vulnerable areas for PNG and potential policy and technical interventions.

Subprogram 2: Enhancement of smallholder incomes from horticulture and root crops

• Matching supply to demand and marketing of highland root and horticultural crops, including:
• understanding the sector to clarify demand of different product categories in major markets.
• understanding relative effectiveness of different collaborative arrangements for mobilising smallholders from social and cultural perspectives
• economics of storage depots, and the role of private sector versus government intervention
• establishment of criteria for productive relationships between smallholders, middlemen and private sector buyers and sellers
• Application of traditional staple crop varieties (sweetpotato, taro and banana) and identification of suitable crop varieties for processed products
• Identification of quarantine barriers to potential export of root crops and flowers to other countries
• Use of legumes and fallow crops for soil fertility improvement and longer term nutrient supply in vegetable production systems
• Analysis and interventions in market chains for temperate vegetables, including collation of market information and strategies to improve post-harvest operations
• Assessment of simple technologies and mechanisation systems for family and community production, postharvest handling and storage of horticultural crops
• Improvement of seed multiplication, distribution and marketing systems, including assessment of strategies for enhancing availability of quality seed
• Improved productivity and profitability of sweetpotatobased farming systems, including:
• development of breeding and selection strategies for important traits in sweetpotato for different regions in relation to yield, stress tolerance and consumer preferences
• development of integrated pest, disease, weed and nutrient management strategies - evaluation of industrial opportunities for processed sweetpotato products
• Identification of promising root crop--legume--tree-livestock systems that provide better use of crop residues for nutrient cycling and local sources of animal feed.

Subprogram 3: Improving smallholder returns from export tree crop production and marketing

• Social and economic analysis of incentives for uptake of intensified management systems in cocoa, coffee and oil palm
• Development and application of geographic information system (GIS) databases for coffee, cocoa and oil palm with a focus on management of pest and disease outbreaks
• Assessment of the impact of cocoa pod borer infestation and potential coffee berry borer infestation on smallholders and implementation of pre-border-post border spread, incursion management, and surveillance
• Development and smallholder implementation of biocontrol systems for major oil palm pests (sexava, eurycantha) and diseases (ganoderma)
• Assessment of natural resource sustainability indicators for tree crop industries
• Management systems for processing wastes from coffee and other tree crops to underpin development of environmentally sustainable production practices required for certain export markets

Subprogram 4: New livelihoods from smallholder fisheries, aquaculture and forestry

• Use of GIS-based tools that integrate aquaculture into existing land-use systems and socio-economic contexts
• Small-scale inland aquaculture, including cost-effective feeds and feeding strategies and increased availability of quality fingerlings
• Evaluation of livelihood opportunities in recreational fishing resources such as black bass
• Development of agroforestry systems, addressing:
• integration of high-value tree crops into agricultural systems
• germplasm development, delivery and agroforestry demonstration sites
• social, cultural and economic motivations for landowners planting trees
• Social and economic approaches to improve smallholder involvement in forestry and agroforestry, addressing land tenure and user rights issues and participatory processes to foster community engagement
• Improving economic returns from timber processing, including economic analysis of sawmilling strategies, improving sawn log recovery and use of small-diameter logs from secondary forests.

Subprogram 5: Agricultural biosecurity and sustainable management of forestry and fisheries resources

• Optimising economic, social and environmental returns from planted and native forests, particularly addressing landowner land-use options, product diversification and income earning opportunities for women
• Climate change and sustainable forest management, including research on transparent instruments to foster landowner involvement in carbon trading (through ACIAR collaboration with whole-of-government programs)
• Reafforestation strategies for rehabilitation of degraded areas, including secondary (cutover) forests, mine sites and grasslands
• Management of shark fisheries, including target (shark longline) and non-target (tuna, purse seine and longline) fisheries
• Responding to overfished inshore fisheries through community-based fisheries management, restocking (especially of sea cucumber) and identification of aquaculture-based livelihoods
• Assessment of future risks, control and potential utilisation strategies for invasive or exotic fisheries species
• Strengthening of surveillance systems to monitor and respond to livestock diseases.