Agriculture Development and Policies In Papua New Guinea

Since the beginning of this century the agricultural sector in Papua New Guinea (P.N.G) has undergone a number of structural changes and diversification. The first phase of the structural change has been the transition from a purely subsistence agriculture to a mixture of subsistence and commercial agriculture with the introduction of modern methods of farming. The second phase has been the diversification of the commercial agriculture from purely plantation mode of production to a more diversified mode of production, namely smallholding ,plantations, nucleus estates and intensive livestock production. The rate of agricultural development has varied. The post World War II period has seen a rapid growth and expansion of the agricultural sector. In contrast the past 16 years since independence have witnessed a sluggish performance of the agricultural sector. The poor performance of the agricultural sector has largely contributed to the overall poor performance of the P. N. G economy as agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy. This has led the government to reassess some of its development policies and priorities in recent years. This report examines various government policy instruments related to agriculture to determine if these influenced the performance of the agricultural sector.