Papua New Guinea consultations 2008

A series of high-level consultations in Port Moresby, Lae and Goroka were held during May 2008, to discuss priorities for collaborative agricultural research for development between Australia and Papua New Guinea over the next four years. Participants included representatives from ACIAR and AusAID and representatives from relevant PNG National and Provincial government departments, statutory authorities, research organisations, the Rural Industries Council, NGOs and the private sector.

ACIAR's program recognises the many challenges to agricultural development in PNG, including poorly developed infrastructure, weak market signals and services, pressure on land and renewable resources as a result of population increases and new pest and disease threats, and poor product quality. Future impacts of population pressure and of HIV/AIDS and other human diseases on the farming sector, including effects on labour availability and productivity, will be addressed and gender issues will be mainstreamed into the program.

Scope

The consultations were conducted as part of ACIAR's formal program of high-level meetings with leading PNG researchers and other stakeholders, to identify a set of overarching issues that ACIAR can then use as a framework in the design of collaborative research projects. The priorities determined at the consulation meetings were discussed at a final synthesis meeting, opened by the PNG Minister for National Planning, the Hon. Paul Tiensten. At this meeting a framework for collaborative research for development over the next four years was finalised.

Themes for research cooperation

It was agreed that the ACIAR program in PNG will have the key themes of:

• addressing social, cultural and policy constraints to the adoption of agricultural technologies
• enhancement of smallholder incomes from horticulture and root crops
• improving smallholder returns from export tree crop production and marketing
• new livelihoods from smallholder fisheries, aquaculture and forestry
• sustainable management of forestry and fisheries resources, and agricultural biosecurity.

All research programs will specifically address the social, cultural and policy constraints to adoption of agricultural technologies and include major components on institutional and individual capacity building.

ACIAR's strategy

The ACIAR program in PNG aims, through applied technical, social, economic and policy research to achieve practical impacts for PNG smallholders, consumers, industry and government. At the consultations, consensus was achieved on several over-arching issues. These include the importance of engagement with the private sector, industry bodies and NGOs along with government in both research and implementation of research results; the importance of research that assists the engagement of smallholders in the cash economy; and the importance of understanding social and economic issues affecting farmer decision making and factors influencing adoption of new technologies.

Research is urgently needed into more effective ways of up-scaling the adoption of R&D results from pilot level involvement of communities to enable broader implementation. ACIAR will work with counterparts to assist in communication and extension of the results of research. As well as making a greater commitment to the implementation of the results of research, the need for on-going development of agricutlural technologies remains strong.

There are requirements for capacity building at the individual and institutional levels in all areas, but particularly to support analyses of social and economic constraints and opportunities, marketing and value addition of agricultural products and in agricultural education.