Sustainability of farming systems in Fiji and Papua New Guinea

• Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Papua New Guinea
• University of the South Pacific, Fiji
• Australian National University, Australia
• Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Australia

Both PNG and Fiji have concerns about sustainability of their traditional farming systems, and this project assisted the two countries to further their work on developing more sustainable systems. The project built upon close contacts with a range of Australian institutions including Griffith University, the University of Queensland, Department of Natural Resources Queensland, and in particular with Department of Primary Industries Queensland and Australian National University. It helped these institutions to develop further contact within the South Pacific and equipped them to play an even larger role in the development of sustainable land management through the networks of the International Board for Soil Research and Management (IBSRAM).
A method for the assessment of sustainability of different land management practices, and the development of more sustainable solutions were the two main outcomes anticipated from the research. They are keys to IBSRAM's Framework for evaluation of sustainable land management (FELSM), which it hopes to institute at the farm level throughout nations of the South Pacific.

The original objectives of the project were to review existing methods and approaches to assessing sustainability of farming systems at the farm level; to report on case studies in Fiji and PNG in which methods for assessing and describing sustainability under different farming systems were described; also to indicate the pressures they faced, and to establish a set of potential indicators of sustainability of farming systems in the South Pacific that meet the needs of resource users, owners and managers.

The project comprised three activities:
a field trip to Rabaul in June 1997 by an inter-disciplinary team to work with land managers in defining the sustainability of a range of local farming systems
a training course in Fiji in June 1999 (based on the results of the Rabaul field trip) on Sustainable Land Management and Land Quality Indicators, jointly funded by ACIAR, AusAID, and IBSRAM. The training course concentrated on participatory approaches to research and extension in sustainable land management, and incorporated both classroom and field activities.
a follow-up training workshop held in Suva in October 1999 on Sustainable Land Management and Economic Indicators, which took place after researchers realised during the June training workshop that participating partner country R&D officers, extension workers, and farmers had a weak understanding of economic indicators and their derivation. The workshop focused on tools for the financial assessment of land management alternatives and provided practical guidelines for data collection and calculations of costs and benefits as experienced by farmers.

The need to review existing methods and approaches to assessing sustainability of farming systems at the farm level was rendered redundant by the publication of excellent reviews by outside groups early in the life of the project. With respect to the second output, the project has developed a Methodology for assessing swidden-based farming systems, which reflects the value in using both researcher-defined and community-defined indicators when assessing sustainability.
The field trip in June 1997 was intended as the first of two 'paired snapshots' planned for PNG. A second visit was planned for April 1998, but this trip was cancelled, initially due to the very serious drought in PNG (which meant that meaningful data on parameters such as crop growth/soil loss could not be obtained) and finally due to the dramatic political upheaval in PNG (which completely de-stabilised the local research team). Thus the project did not acquire a complete analysis of the New Britain farming systems.
The third output was similarly compromised by the cancellation of the second field trip. However, some initial analysis of soil and vegetation properties suggests that information on fallow length and vegetation composition at the end of the fallow are, as expected, useful indicators of sustainability in swidden-based systems.
Despite the serious problems faced by the project, a number of important results and conclusions were attained:
Development of a Methodology for participatory assessment of Sustainable Land Management.
Demonstration that good quality systematic data on PNG shifting cultivation systems could be collected in a relatively short time by a skilled team of field workers.
Demonstration that the participatory approach was essential in the study of shifting cultivation systems. Without the direct assistance of the farming community, fields cannot be located and it is impossible to obtain good information on cultivation history. The participatory approach was also useful in educating land managers regarding environmental matters and constraints to resource use.
Development of likely indicators of sustainability of swidden-based land-use systems, based on the composition of vegetation at the end of the fallow. As expected, dominance of large trees was associated with long fallow practices and higher levels of soil organic carbon.
Successful application of the training received during two Fiji workshops on participatory approaches to both sustainable land management and economic sustainability indicators, in field studies in Fiji and Vanuatu.

For PNG, the results of the project are contributing to the development of the PNG research agenda on natural resource management.