Mama Lus Frut scheme: an assessment of poverty reduction

Summary

The 'Mama Lus Frut' scheme was established to increase the productivity of smallholder palm-oil plantations in Papua New Guinea. The scheme involves a direct payment to women for the collection of loose fruit. Women were issued with harvest nets and a payment card (referred to as the 'mama card'), which allowed them to collect loose fruit, sell it and receive their own monthly payment cheque. The scheme was fully installed in the Hoskins region in just two months in 1997, due to overwhelming interest. In 2002, the concept of the mama card was extended, on a trial basis, beyond smallholder family members to unemployed persons in the community at large.