Key Trends from the 2005 country brief

• Total agricultural researcher numbers in PNG rose steadily until 2001, but declined in 2002. Agricultural R&D expenditures showed an erratic upward trend until 1998, but in recent years have gradually fallen.
• PNG’s main agricultural research agency is the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), accounting for roughly one-third of the country’s agricultural researchers and a quarter of its agricultural R&D expenditures in 2002.
• In contrast to its predecessor, the current government is fully committed to financial support of NARI; providing 90 percent of its total funding. But it is anticipated that the institute will draw important foreign donor projects and generate substantial internal revenue in the years to come.
• In 2002, PNG’s major commodity-specific research agencies, the Cocoa and Coconut Research Institute (CCRI), Coffee Research Institute (CRI), and PNG Oil Palm Research Association (OPRA), were responsible for over 50 percent of the country’s agricultural R&D expenditures. Nevertheless, in recent years their combined share has steadily fallen, mostly as a result of reduced donor and government funding and declining income from commodity levies.
• In 2002, 9 percent of PNG’s agricultural research was carried out by the private sector.

Papua New Guinea