The Mama Lus Frut scheme was established to increase the productivity of smallholder palm-oil plantations in Papua New Guinea. ACIAR project ASEM/1999/084, ‘Improving Productivity of the Smallholder Oil Palm Sector in Papua New Guinea: a Study of Biophysical and Socioeconomic Interactions’,...

Larvae of the butterfly Erionota thrax, the banana skipper, destroy the leaves of bananas by eating them and forming massive protective rolls of leaf tissue. They were first observed in north-western Papua New Guinea in 1983 and over the next 6 years spread throughout the mainland at the rate of...

Between 1983 and 1992, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) invested A$3 million in research to find a vaccine that could provide protection from Newcastle disease in chickens and be applied in village environments in developing countries. A further $160 000 was...

Fruit flies are a serious economic pest affecting horticultural production world-wide. Increasing coordination of activities between neighbouring countries and those countries involved in fresh fruit trade is leading to more effective regional management of the fruit fly pest. 1.1 ACIAR Research...