Department of Agriculture and Livestock

The World Bank funded PNG Agriculture Commercialization and Diversification (PACD) Project was launched on June 28 2022 at APEC Haus in Port Moresby.

This is a new and important phase of World Bank investment in the sector to the tune of K140 million as a continued partnership with PNG to support the development of the agriculture.

The project aims to facilitate the development of competitive and diversified agriculture value chains for coffee, cocoa, coconuts, spices and small livestock in twelve provinces.

These provinces are the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, New Ireland, East New Britain, West New Britain, Morobe, Madang, Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Enga and Southern Highlands.

The project will be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), Cocoa Board of PNG and Coffee Industry Corporation Limited in collaboration with the Kokonas Indastri Koporesen, the PNG Spice Board and Livestock Development Corporation.

According to World Bank, the project aims to help address three of the key constraints that affect the performance of the agriculture sector:

1. Supporting sector institutions to improve performance and enhance industry governance and coordination,
2. Improve key rural roads so that produce can reach markets in the best condition to get the best price and also help critical services reach the farmers and their communities, and
3. At the heart of the PACD help smallholders increase productivity and quality of produce and ultimately earn higher incomes for their efforts.

This project leads on from the recently completed Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP), also funded by World Bank. PPAP was launched in 2011 and in just over 10 years it supported more than 67 000 stallholder cocoa and coffee producers across PNG with more the three million cocoa tress and more than seven million coffee trees replanted or rehabilitated.

PACD will help build upon the successes of PPAP and expand beyond cocoa and coffee to

other important value chains. In essence, PACD aims to facilitate the development of competitive and diversified agriculture value chains for coffee, cocoa, coconuts, spices and small livestock in the benefiting provinces.

The launch was attended by officials of DAL, World Bank, Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Cocoa Board, CIC, KIK, LDC, Spice Board, agri-businesses, various partners and growers and farmers.