Since the mid-1980s smallholders in Papua New Guinea have produced approximately 65 per cent of the country's total output of cocoa and coconut. But despite the importance of these sectors to the people and the economy of the country, little was known of their structure or development potential. This knowledge was needed so that the PNG Cocoa and Coconut Research Institute (CCRI) could tailor its provincial services and research and development activities to this group of growers.
CCRI has conducted cocoa and coconut research in PNG for over 10 years. Each year the demand for funds to continue this research increases. If farmers successfully adopt innovations as they are released then this demand for funds from the government, international funding organisations and farmers is justified. Since the commencement of operations by CCRI, many research trials and projects had taken place on-station, but there was little documentation or evidence of measurement to record successful completion and subsequent adoption by cocoa and coconut farmers. There was a need for a comprehensive review and appraisal of past and present research projects.
The primary aim of the project was to collect information on coconut and cocoa-based farming systems, and to undertake an economic evaluation of the research on these crops currently under way in PNG. The main intention was to set up a framework for monitoring and evaluating both research and its adoption.
A project leader/consulting economist from University of New England in Australia, working with the PNG CCRI senior economist, a junior economist and 25 enumerators, implemented the project. Conveniently, the work carried out to achieve the first aim of the project provided case studies for achieving the final objective.
The first component of the project surveyed 100 farmers (80 village and 20 settlement farmers) selected from a stratified random sample. The questionnaires and forms were based on those used in an earlier survey of smallholder coffee growers, run by the Coffee Industry Corporation in Goroka. The sample of farmers was spread over the province, but excluded the Pomio District due to access problems.
The project work entailed three levels of data collection. First, general information was collected on cocoa and coconut production for the study areas through a baseline survey that included information on the resource base. Second, the main body of data collection took place at the farm level. Here, data were collected on revenues and costs of production of cocoa and coconuts for the smallholder sector for a one-year period (rather than the two-year period originally planned), both as intercrops and sole plantings. Third, specific data were collected to improve and update the industry models for cocoa and coconuts developed in earlier ACIAR project 1994/008.
The second component consisted of 30 farmers from on-farm trials of the Cocoa Agronomy Section and adaptive trials on minibox and solar drier technologies in six provinces undertaken by the Cocoa Quality Section. Data collection from this component was less intensive as the research sections directly engaged in these trials were already gathering physical and technical data.
Outputs from the project were in three main forms. First were reports prepared in an Occasional Papers series, summarising the main findings of the survey work. Second was a monitoring system designed to continue as a less intensive data-gathering exercise. It included those items identified in the project as requiring regular updating and also comprised regular resource-base surveys undertaken every two to three years. Third, a review paper was prepared, detailing experiences of data collection processes during the project, for the benefit of others undertaking future surveys for data collection on a regular basis as part of research activities of CCRI, or other institutions in PNG concerned with tree crop production
The data gathered during the project are now available to improve and update existing industry-based models, to use in benefit-cost analyses to evaluate the net social benefits of past research projects, and to establish base information for appraising future research options.
These data are also available for benefit-cost analyses to evaluate the impacts of commodity grading programs and postharvest initiatives leading to product quality improvements. They will help researchers to gain a better understanding of gender relations within households, such as in labour use and distribution of revenues, to improve the prospects of success of research and extension among smallholders who produce cocoa and copra.
Researchers can also use the data to explore the opportunities for diversification within existing cocoa/coconut farming systems, especially those that arise from the introduction of improved production methods. They can also measure the dynamic effects on output and profitability of changing age structures of cocoa trees and coconut palms, and the economic impacts of interventions to improve or maintain yields of ageing trees and palms, and measure the dynamic effects on output and profitability of specific public investment programs, and cocoa and coconut replanting programs.
As well the researchers have the information to study the effects on output and profitability of the trend away from plantings on new land towards replanting of existing plantations as the amount of land available for new plantings becomes scarcer. They can also examine the effects of changes in input prices and cocoa and coconut output prices on the supply and profitability of smallholders. Another area of interest is the impact on flexibility, risks faced and profitability in cocoa and coconut production when smallholders shift to a more commercial basis as they adopt improved technologies and rely more heavily on purchased inputs.
These outcomes are enabling measurement of the technical inefficiency of smallholder production, with a view to understanding the factors that influence the level of technical efficiency achieved by a particular farm household (with implications for the effectiveness of extension efforts). Finally they are enabling assessment of the impacts on cocoa and copra production of rural savings and credit programs.
Links:
[1] http://www.aciar.gov.au/country/Papua New Guinea
[2] http://www.aciar.gov.au/programarea/Agricultural Systems Management