ACIAR has a long history of working with countries in Africa. Given the increasing attention to food security in Africa, leading to the establishment of ACIAR’s Australian International Food Security Centre, it is timely to review ACIAR’s experiences in Africa to date. Reviewing past projects can help guide future investment decisions by highlighting the types of projects that deliver the best returns and by identifying some of the barriers faced in different countries.

This report provides an overview of the methodological issues involved in incorporating environmental and natural resource values within ACIAR’s economic impact assessments. Recent developments in analytical techniques have provided a sound basis for combining two parallel streams of research: tradition economic analysis of the environment, and the ‘ecosystem service’ approach to evaluation. These approaches are complementary, and they bring an added dimension to measuring the benefits attributed to ACIAR-funded research.

ACIAR has funded a range of oil palm projects in PNG. This report examines the pathways through which ACIAR’s portfolio of oil palm projects, in particular the socioeconomic and biocontrol clusters – have delivered benefits to the community.

Sandalwood is one of the world’s most valuable forest products. However, much of the wild-sourced sandalwood has been overharvested. The Vanuatu Government has been implementing measures to foster the sustainable use of sandalwood, including controlling the quantity that can be harvested, requiring value-added processing, and producing sandalwood seedlings for planting by landowners.

ACIAR commissioned the development of a monitoring and capacity-development tool, called the Capacity Snapshot. It is designed to capture data on the ways in which scientists engage in capacity development, and to provide a clear picture of the capacities developed by research scientists in specific ACIAR projects.

There is much evidence to support the assertion that improving agricultural productivity can reduce extreme poverty among rural populations in the developing world. This report examines some recent advances in methods for assessing the impact of agricultural research on the poor, and suggests a method specifically suitable for measuring the poverty-reducing impact of ACIAR research.

  While India’s expansion of the rice–wheat cropping system led to the production of more food, it has also led to degradation of the natural environment, and concerns over the sustainability of the practice. This report looks at the returns on investment of ACIAR projects that sought to develop alternative practices for growing rice and wheat sustainably, and designing a machine that allows direct seeding of wheat into rice stubble.

Livestock disease constrains livelihood development in the Mekong countries through loss of animals and their productivity, restriction of trade within and between countries, and the diseases that can be transmitted from livestock to humans. The term biosecurity describes the methods used to contain these diseases and prevent their transmission.

ACIAR has provided significant, long-term research investment into tropical sea cucumber aquaculture in the Asia–Pacific region. Work has included large-scale hatchery culture of sandfish (a species of sea cucumber), techniques for releasing cultured juveniles into the wild, and sea ranching and pond culture. ACIAR, together with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, organised a symposium to review this work, as well as research from other parts of the world.

Adoption studies are undertaken 3 to 4 years after a large project is completed to assess the level of uptake and the legacy of the project. They provide valuable insidghts into the uptake of project results and the impact on local communities. This adoption study looks at projects completed in 2006–07.

This report reviews the historical context of forest management and the recent focus on tropical forest-based climate-change mitigation in PNG, and identifies challenges and priorities. Advances in the assessment of timber, carbon stocks and biodiversity, as well as in the quantitative understanding of forests through modelling, are described in order to provide a scientific basis for forest-management decision-making at both the community and the government level.

An assessment of the impact of an ACIAR–World Vision extension project on improving rice crop yields in southern Laos. The assessment shows there have been significant gains in food security for the adopting farmers, with widespread acceptance of the new rice varieties and improvement of wet-season rice yields.

This study assesses the impact of IRRI’s work on varietal improvement on rice production in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

This study provides an overall assessment of ACIAR’s forestry program in PNG and takes a more in-depth look at projects relating to galip nuts.

This study adds to the body of literature on the development of methodological frameworks and tools that could be used to assess the benefits of policy-oriented research. It also investigates the extent to which policy outputs were achieved in 10 of ACIAR’s Indonesian policy projects.

  This report describes the first economic impact study of ACIAR’s plantation forestry research in Indonesia and Australia.

  This report summarises findings from an ACIAR project that aimed to lift agricultural productivity in southern Bangladesh and address the large and growing wheat deficit of the country. The challenge was to determine whether wheat or other short-duration Rabi (dry-season) crops, including mungbean, could be grown profitably under the hot, humid and sometimes saline conditions of this region.