A presentation made at the WCCA 2011 event in Brisbane, Australia.

1. Building social resilience through
understanding capacities of
smallholder farming in Papua New
Guinea
Colin Birch
On behalf of
G. Palaniappan, B. Chambers, L. Bonney, L. Simeon,
S. Hopa and C. Birch
27th September 2011
World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, Brisbane
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2. The Project context
Paper arises from project
Increasing vegetable production in
Central Province, Papua New Guinea
to supply Port Moresby Markets
(in partnership with)
National Agricultural Research Institute
Fresh Produce Development Agency
Central Province Administration
Pacific Adventist University
Greenfresh Limited
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3. The Papua New Guinea Context
Developing Country
Economy in transition – led by mineral
and gas resource projects
 Socially diverse
Culturally conservative
Customary land tenure - groups
Subsistence agriculture still predominant
Shifting agriculture
But emerging semi-commercial and
commercial production
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4. The Papua New Guinea Context
Rapidly increasing population
Internal migration creating challenges
Highlands to peri Urban Port Moresby
Rising middle class and increasing ex-
patriot population
Significant illiteracy
Low level of services
Complexity of Government – National,
Provincial, Local, new provinces in 2011
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5. The Papua New Guinea
Government responses
 Meeting fresh food needs of PoM and other
centres a Government priority
 National Government established Fresh
Produce Development Agency
 Agricultural development a priority
of Central Province Admin
 Community development
embedded in agric. development
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6. The Opportunity
 Overcome deficit in PoM supply - 60000 to 80000t/yr
 Meeting changing tastes eg. ‘westernisation’ of diets
ex-patriots want cool temperate vegetables
 Replacing imports and conserving
foreign exchange
 Improving diets and nutrition
 Enhancing value chains and
returns to farmers
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7. Research Rationale and Strategy
 Rationale
Enhance socio-economic conditions
Improve production
Improve self reliance
Utilise local resources
Produce diversity of crops
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8. Our socio-economic
research strategy
Use an action research framework of semi-
structured interviews
To
Identify socio-economic strengths and
constraints affecting vegetable production
and profitability.
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9. Research Methodology
 Used Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Rapid
Supply Chain Appraisal (RSCA)
To elicit vegetable farming realities
and ideas for change
AI has 4 Ds – Discovery, Dream, Design,
Destiny
RSCA – identifies areas for improvement
along supply chains
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10. Research Methodology
 The Discovery and Dream Interview
 Used small group approach – 4 to 15 people
 Men and women interviewed separately in
English and Tok Pisun or Motu
 Participants asked to name the best and most
problematic aspects of vegetable growing
 Most frequently mentioned aspects identified
 Reflection process used to ensure validity and
consistency
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11. Research Methodology
Dream and Design workshop
with women and their daughters being held late September in Port
Moresby.
Purpose - to link Dreams to Design using a low-literacy, pictorial
training needs assessment linked to vegetable growing
Dreams provide the entry point for exploring Design
Design encourages thinking about strategies to improve vegetable growing,
Destiny (the next step) encourages implementation of actions and provision of
feedback to the community
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12. Research Methodology
 Dream and Design workshop
- with women and their daughters being
held late September in Port Moresby
 Purpose - to link Dreams to Design using a low-
literacy, pictorial training needs assessment
linked to vegetable growing
Aim: Quality in the
supermarket?
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13. Research Methodology
RSCA –Identify participants/groups along the supply
chain
Interview process to gain perceptions of
participants of aspects of supply chain that can
be improved
Provides focus for subsequent biophysical and
supply chain research
AI and RSCA complimentary methodologies
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14. Findings - Strengths favouring
adaptation and resilience
 Food security, surplus sold
 Family involvement of farming enterprise
 Participants wishing to remain in farming
 Some socio-cultural norms
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15. Findings - Weaknesses that
constrain adaptation and resilience
Limited availability of inputs and
knowledge
Poor access to markets, poor post
harvest infrastructure
Poor roads and transport
Distance from RD & E Services
Socio cultural – eg land tenure, cultural
norms, insecurity
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16. Current work arising from these
studies
 Dream and Destiny workshop this week
 Field experimentation at NARI, PAU, Tapini
 Demonstration areas at, Sogeri, Tapini
 Ongoing value chain research
 Establishing improved value chains from Tapini,
Sogeri, Kwikila/Rigo-Bautama
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17. Conclusions
 Small holder families vital
 Enhance capacity through cooperatives
 Resilience requires improvements along the
value chain and improved economic
strength of rural communities
 Assisted in focussing current production
and value chain research
 Providing guidance to for example
establishment of marketing infrastructure
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18. Acknowledgements
The financial support of ACIAR is
acknowledged.
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19. Location of the Project
Limited to Central Province of PNG, has coastal
lowlands and mid altitude areas eg Tapini
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