Building social resilience through understandng capacities of smallholder farming in Papua New Guinea

The Papua New Guinea economy is in transition to a semi-commercial/commercial farming system. However, the majority of the population of PNG practice subsistence farming (Mopafi 2004). To accommodate change, understanding the capacity of farming communities to adapt and be socially resilient is essential (Adger 2000). We are implementing a project to increase vegetable production in Central Province (CP) for Port Moresby (PoM) markets (ACIAR 2010, Birch et al 2009) in partnership with Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA), National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI), Pacific Adventist University (PAU), Central Province Administration (CPA) and Greenfresh (GF), of PNG. Here, we discuss strengths and weakness of smallholder farming in several locations in CP in terms of adaptation to change and social resilience.