This manual was compiled to be a reference to be used in shell-based handicraft skills workshops in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. It was produced as part of an ACIAR-supported project focused on developing pearl industry-based livelihoods in the western Pacific region. The manual is designed as a companion to community shell-based handicraft training and is likely to find broad application within the Pacific region. The manual provides the essentials of making shell-based jewellery and macramé, including:

ACIAR has two flagship capacity-building programs. The John Allwright Fellowship (JAF) has brought aspiring Filipino scientists to learn, collaborate and be trained in Australian institutions, exposing the JAF fellows to a broad range of scientific learning and problem-solving approaches. Bringing these learnings back to the country, Filipino JAF fellows can then develop science-based solutions in a grassroots approach.

Our work supporting countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Climate change and extreme weather events are already affecting agricultural production and threatening food security in tropical and temperate regions. The hardest hit are the rural poor, who mostly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

The fifth edition of Mung Central, the official newsletter of the International Mungbean Improvement Network (IMIN), is out now. 

This guide draws on several ACIAR projects, led by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. It provides valuable information about the characteristics of coconut woody tissue and different processing equipment that can be used to produce rotary veneer. It also provides guidance on how to process coconut stems into veneer, along with the techniques to dry and grade the veneer sheets. Finally, it describes the production and testing of high-value engineered ‘cocowood’ products suitable for a range of appearance and structural applications.

This book highlights the role of diversity in agricultural development efforts in southern and eastern Africa.

The aim of this paper is to help Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) researchers and research organisations increase the positive impact of their research by thinking through some of the ways the research context is changing, how “agricultural extension” specifically has shifted, and what a rethink of agricultural extension suggests about and offers to agricultural research. The paper is informed by an extensive literature review, a series of workshops with ACIAR stakeholders, and 37 interviews with ACIAR researchers and experts in AR4D and extension.

A diagnostic framework for equitable mariculture development in the Western Indian Ocean Guiding the sustainable development of sectors within the blue economy is critical not only to the global goal of thriving life under water (SDG 14), but also across many other goals related to resources, poverty, health, equity and wellbeing. This is especially the case for island and coastal states, where oceans support daily subsistence, livelihoods and economic opportunities, in the face of poverty and food and nutrition insecurity.

Cook like the locals in Vietnam, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania and Mozambique.

A guide for farmers and their advisers on sustainable irrigation practices.

Forests and trees play a vital role in the economic, social, environmental and cultural lives of the peoples of Oceania. However, both biodiversity and the genetic diversity of individual species are under threat or already suffering from impacts of habitat loss, overharvesting and competition from invasive weeds. In addition, the islands of the south-western Pacific are considered among the most vulnerable regions of the world to climate change.

Since the last edition of Mung Central, the teams have been busy harvesting trials and evaluating data on the pest and disease tolerance characteristics of the mungbean mini-core collection. Heavy incidence of Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Disease (MYMD) at a number of locations enabled the teams to collect good data on tolerance and resistance to the disease. In addition, data were collected on the incidence of dry root rot, powdery mildew, anthracnose, thrips and aphids.

A comprehensive reference on the sharks and rays of Papua New Guinea providing guidance on how to recognise and identify the sharks, rays and chimaeras found in Papua New Guinean fresh and marine waters.

Kunthea and the Happy Cow is an environmental educational story. The lead character of the story, Kunthea, returns to her village in Cambodia after undertaking an student exchange scholarship in Indonesia for one year. Kunthea is dismayed to see the changes that have taken place to the landscape and farmland surrounding the village as a result of deforestation. Kunthea enlists the help of her best friend and the village tree teacher to come up with a plan to restore beauty and productivity to the area.

Newsletter of the International Mungbean Improvement Network (IMIN).

This monograph describes how the first large-scale research and development projects ever to be undertaken in the Baliem Valley in the Highlands of the Indonesian province of Papua were established and conducted over a period of 15 years.

This manual on the production of rotary wood veneer and associated manufacturing of veneer-based products draws on the results from completed ACIAR projects. It provides extensive information and guidance on the processing of small log resources into veneer, along with the description of manufacturing techniques to convert the veneer into high-value engineered wood products suitable for a range of appearance and structural applications. 

Agricultural extension and education are important tools in the policy toolkit to facilitate agricultural development in developing countries. We have known for a long time that farmers learn at least as much from other farmers as they do from professional educators or extension officers. This manual brings these two ideas together by suggesting a process and providing resources to support the development of farmers as peer educators.