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Food and nutritional security are crucial issues in Papua New Guinea (PNG) today. There is a general consensus that the typical diet of sweet potato currently consumed by PNG villagers contains too high a proportion of carbohydrate and too little protein. This is compounded by the cultural gender bias which sees the high-protein foods which are available directed toward the men.

In this project led by the University of Queensland, smallholder farmers are being introduced to  new soil fertility management practices for sweet potato, a PNG staple crop that is in strong demand. The CSC is working with a PNG NGO, Voice for Change, to develop an innovative training approach that integrates this technical training with the Family Farm Teams approach to enable smallholder families to work in gender equitable way. The CSC project is studying farmer learning, peer learning and the gender dimensions of farm and family work.

This research strategy builds on the successful approach of which provides an important foundation of data, knowledge and insights into the effective mobilisation of women and men as family farm teams.

For the purposes of research, agricultural extension, monitoring and evaluation, this project is utilising the participatory and low literacy training strategies that have been developed for subsistence families as part of the Family Farm Teams (FFT) program.

Project Strategy

The project strategy has two components:

Family based action learning (FBAL program)—This part of the strategy will be undertaken primarily in the Waghi Valley in partnership with Voice for Change.

This approach supports families to move towards more business-focussed agriculture whilst simultaneously providing an opportunity to research gender dynamics, particularly in relation to gendered roles and division of labour. The FBAL program will engage one female and one male family head from a household and provides them with a series of workshops and family activities that will enable them to work as a family team to plan the further development of their agricultural activities together. The engagement of men as well as women is essential in PNG where violence against women has been documented as a response to women’s changing roles.

Farmer to farmer peer learning—this second phase uses a place-based approach to explore a peer education program run by selected participants from the FBAL phase 1. These trainers are supported to design and implement their own soil, sweet potato and FFT training program for farmers in the Baiyer Valley, Western Highlands province. This will enable a deeper understanding of farmer led peer training and learning

The CSC contribution to this project will achieve:

• Improved understanding of soil management techniques acceptable and suitable for smallholder farmers in PNG
• Identification of gender equitable ways for farming families to sustain effective soil management
• Deeper understanding of place-based farmer-to-farmer peer learning

Kopel, E. & Pamphilon, B. (2023) Innovative soil improvement training for increasing Jiwaka semi-subsistence farmers sweet potato production: lessons for application and sustainability, The National Research Institute, PNG Spotlight series, vol. 16, issue 12