This project aimed to improve livelihoods by enabling local farmers to develop flexible and responsive cropping and livestock systems that better use available water resources, thereby making households more resilient to climate change/variability. Endemic poverty on the East India Plateau is associated with food insecurity and civil unrest. Agricultural productivity is low, and there is little irrigation infrastructure. Population pressure has pushed cultivation of rice (the staple crop) onto the medium uplands.

Improved village scale groundwater recharge and management for agriculture and livelihood development in India

This project increased catchment productivity, made dryland areas more productive, and improved rural people's livelihoods. Investment in soil and water conservation and associated technologies is critical for increasing food security and improving rural livelihoods in Afghanistan, which lacks trained personnel to support agricultural research and development.

A project aimed at improving the profitability of smallholder farming households in Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces, through on-farm efficiency gains and development of dairy and beef market opportunities.

This project aimed to identify the most promising strategies for managing sweetpotato pests and diseases in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia. Sweetpotato is a significant, year round, staple food in PNG which is increasingly grown as a domestic market crop, catering to escalating demand from expanding urban centres. 

Reducing the knowledge and information gap on the inputs, performance, and outcomes of agricultural research systems in Southeast Asia

Enhancing forest management practices in community forests and private land to improve livelihoods, social equity and environmental impacts.

Teak produces a high-value timber that is in strong demand both nationally and internationally. When combined with smallholder farming systems teak can provide substantial economic benefits. This project aimed to improve smallholder livelihoods in the upland regions of northern Laos to enable the better understanding of the economic, social and environmental benefits of teak-based agroforestry systems.

This project aimed to provide a sustainable basis for the further development of a mariculture sector in PNG and to further build capacity within country partner organisations and coastal communities to support this development. Outputs from this project have had regional uptake and impacts. For example, NIMRF staff participated in the SPC Regional Exchange on Sandfish Aquaculture where they disseminated project-developed sandfish culture procedures, particularly relating to the use of micro-algae as a larval food source.

Increasing resilience, productivity, community engagement, and livelihood opportunities from pearl farming in Fiji, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea.

Diversification and revitalisation of seaweed industries in the Pacific island countries of Fiji, Kiribati and Samoa.

This project aimed to improve food and nutrition security, productivity and resilience of fisheries systems and community livelihoods in coastal Timor-Leste. Fisheries and aquaculture in Timor-Leste fall well short of their potential to improve livelihoods and food security.  Timor-Leste makes limited use of its living marine resources, in stark contrast to neighbouring nations and small island states globally.  Promotion of sustainable marine resource use could significantly improve food security.

Improving rural livelihoods through forest landscape restoration in the Philippines.

This project is increasing returns to labour, particularly for women, through the adoption of new technologies and farming practices that improve coffee quality and total production.

This Project aimed to identify key operational arrangements for Lao farmer organisations that satisfy members' needs so they can make independent and effective plans while interacting with other stakeholders. It pursued this aim through helping farmer organisations analyse and respond to opportunities; and building service providers' understanding and tools for supporting farmer organisations.

This project aimed to understand and increase the role of traditional vegetables in Papua New Guinea and the Top End of the Northern Territory for smallholder growers, for more diversified incomes and improved livelihoods. Food consumption patterns in urban areas of Papua New Guinea have changed in recent decades, and more consumers prefer imported foods. Store-bought foods, energy dense but nutritionally poor, are replacing micronutrient rich traditional garden foods in both rural and urban diets. Northern Australian communities face similar problems.

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. 

This project aimed to improve agricultural development and food security by shifting the focus of Myanmar's agricultural research and development onto farmer decisions and effective farmer extension strategies in the Central Dry Zone and Ayeyarwady Delta.

This project aimed to develop new farmer-driven extension models involving partnerships between the public and commercial sectors to improve nutrient management, extension delivery and the mobilisation of labour for coffee production. Coffee is PNG's second largest agricultural export after oil palm, although it employs far more people; 370,000 households (2.5 million people) produce coffee in 12 provinces. Despite coffee's economic importance for rural livelihoods, annual national production over the last 10 years has stagnated at around one million bags.

Increasing milk supply (quantity and quality) and net-household incomes for dairy producers in West Java and North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Coffee and cocoa are Indonesia’s third and fourth most important sources of agricultural export earnings and are overwhelmingly produced by smallholder farmers, with around 2 million households involved in their production. This project aimed to improve smallholder livelihoods and sustainability through more effective value chain interventions.

Advising on policy interventions to enhance productivity, reduce negative environmental externalities, and improve household welfare in Indonesia’s upland catchments.