As part of our research on the status of food security among smallholder farmers in PNG, we are examining the various ways smallholders are responding to both short-term and long-term pressures on their farming and livelihood systems. It is clear that agriculture is intensifying in Papua New Guinea, driven by a rapidly growing population and need for income. Growers of oil palm are developing systems of intercropping food crops with oil palm in its immature phase. The system is successfully providing food and income but questions remain about how the productivity might be optimised in the future.

Associate Professor Paul Nelson, one of our collaborating researchers from James Cook University, has produced a three-minute video on our work on intercropping of food crops and oil palm in PNG.