Department of Agriculture and Livestock

The national Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) is the lead government agency responsible for the management of the agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea. Its mandate is to provide policy advice and technical and administrative support for optimal performance of the sector. These include;

• contributing strategic leadership and direction to the sector,
• coordinating and monitoring national agricultural development programs,
• providing advice that leads to an environment that facilitates investment and supports new initiatives,
• facilitating and supporting effective partnerships between stakeholders, and
• enhancing systems and delivery mechanisms for capacity building (extension, training, information)

 

Goals and Objectives

As PNG Government’s premier policy making and implementing agency, DAL aims to promote improvement and expansion of food crops and livestock programmes and projects in a bid to assist the people of PNG meet their local requirements in nutrition and household food security. The department also strives to promote innovative strategies aimed at increasing food production for both local and global markets. Its specific objectives are:

• To expand and improve the production of food crops and livestock in order to assist in meeting local nutritional requirements as well as ensuring household food security;
• To ensure that the people in rural and less developed areas have the opportunity to participate in the cash economy with opportunities for self-employment among the people in order to minimize urban migration;
• To support the expansion and diversification of export and import replacement commodities with a broader, stronger and sustainable productive base;
• To encourage the private commercial sector to play a greater role in agricultural developments;
• To ensure the highest possible standards of agricultural research, plant and animal health and quality of produce;
• To ensure human resources of the sub-sectors are adequately developed to meet changing economic and social situations;
• To ensure that agriculture production is accelerated, increased and improved with minimum adverse effects on the environment to contribute more to the Gross Domestic Product; and
• To improve the delivery of services by restructuring and strengthening the institutional arrangements to include corporatization and privatization.

 

Strategic Objectives

The strategies to achieve the above objectives include:

• Maintain microeconomic environment and incentive regimes that do not discriminate against agricultural growth;
• Improve the effectiveness of public institutions, programs and expenditure for agriculture;
• Foster greater private sector participation in capital investments and in the provision of agricultural support services where it is economically viable;
• Promote investments that offer opportunities for new export earnings and efficient import substitution;
• Address the deficiencies in agricultural production, support services, delivery systems, and in the physical and economic infrastructure;
• Continue reforms to corporatize agricultural services in the major export tree crop industries for efficiency and to release scarce government resources to other sub-sectors;
• Revitalise research and extension services delivery systems through Industry Corporations and Statutory Institutions;
• Advance human resource development to avail more productive agricultural workers;
• Increase food production to attain food security and reduce dependence on imports;
• Diversify the agricultural production base through improved crop and livestock technologies, down-stream processing, etc.;

 

Core Functions

• Formulation and coordination of national agricultural development policies;
• Facilitate in designing and planning of agricultural development strategies;
• Monitoring and Evaluation of policy implementation, strategies and development;
• Assist and contribute to the preparation of regional, provincial, district and area agricultural and rural development plans;
• Provision of technical advice and information on crops, livestock, resources and environment;
• Facilitate human resources development in agriculture sector; and
• Facilitate policy and economic research analysis;

Programme Structure

The Department’s activities are structured into four main programmes and twelve sub-programmes in accordance with NEC Decision No. 182/98 on program budgeting. Each programme is supported by a group of related projects or activities established to achieve national objectives.

 

Main Programmes	Sub-Programmes	Projects/Activities
Top Management	Top Management & Administration	Internal Audit, National Agriculture Council, Legal Office
	Management Services	Admin & Coordination, Personnel, Organisation Methods & Establishment, Manpower, Salaries, Lands, Building & Asset
	Finance	Management & Coordination, Accounts & Expenditure, Budget & Revenue
Corporate Services	Agriculture Education & Training	Management & Coordination, Training & Staff Development, Livestock In-Service Training, Highlands Agriculture College
	Information & Publication	Management & Coordination, Scientific Editing, Print Shop, Information Technology, Web Development, Public Relations & Media, Library & Information Documentation Services
Policy Planning & Coordination	Economic Research Policy Planning & Coordination	Management & Coordination, Strategy Planning, Rural Statistics, Resource Planning, Project Preparation, Economic Research, Women in Agriculture Development (WIADU), Policy Development.
	Compliance, Monitoring & Evaluation	Management  & Coordination, Compliance Monitoring, Monitoring Evaluation
Provincial Agriculture and Technical  Services (PATS)	Food Security	Management  & Coordination, Rice & Grain, Small Livestock Development, Horticulture
	National Rubber Sector	Rubber Industry Development
	PNG Spice Industry	Spice Industry Development
	Science & Technology	Management & Coordination, Land Use & Climate Change adaptation/Mitigation, Animal & Plant Technical Advisory, Codex Development & Compliance
	Regional Offices	Management & Coordination Southern – Port Moresby Momase – Lae Highlands – Goroka New Guinea Islands – Kokopo