Project final report

Strengthening livelihoods for food security amongst cocoa and oil palm farming communities in Papua New Guinea - final report

Date released
01 May 2019
ISBN
978-1-925747-99-7
Publication Code
ASEM/2012/072
Authors

Gina Koczberski

Overview

This project gained a detailed socio-economic and cultural understanding of the farming and livelihood systems of cocoa and palm oil smallholders in Papua New Guinea to develop and evaluate suitable interventions to relieve the stressors making smallholders vulnerable to food and livelihood insecurity. 

Food security among smallholder cocoa and oil palm growers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is being undermined. 

The recent arrival of Cocoa Pod Borer (CPB) has spread rapidly in the country, decimating the production and incomes of growers, while population and land pressures on the oil palm land settlement schemes are contributing to declining per capita incomes and land shortages for food gardening. For the majority of rural women in PNG, local marketing of garden foods is their most important income, even in areas where smallholder export crop production is dominant. Gardens maintain both food and income security and are an important buffer against fluctuating export cash crop prices. 

There was a need to understand farming and livelihood systems to assess the status of food security in CPB-affected areas and the viability of smallholder cocoa holdings for meeting household income and food needs. This project was in response. 

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