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’,...

Project PHT/1990/035, ‘Integrating Grain Protectants into Storage Pest Management’ was supported by ACIAR for nearly four years from 1992 to 1995. The project was based in China and Australia. Project activity within Australia included the further enhancement of an expert system that had...

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...

This report sets out some broad ideas about how poverty evaluation could be conducted for ACIAR research projects. As with good benefit–cost analysis, there are good practices that need to be observed when undertaking poverty analysis. While poverty is a broad concept, and can be addressed...

This article aims at presenting different approaches to the phenomenon of social capital. The concept of social capital is ambiguous and that is why we will highlight a number of definitions of this notion. The central attention of the paper focuses on the relationship between social capital and...

Today, more than ever, development of agriculture leans on science research results and their practical application. Research in the field of agriculture is conducted by large network of public institutions, institutes and universities are mostly directed toward improvement of production....

An economic evaluation of three ACIAR projects whose primary objective was to improve postharvest grain drying in Thailand and Australia is provided in this report. During 1983–1996, ACIAR invested A$1.2 million in research designed to improve grain drying in these countries. Based on current...

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...

Two Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) projects in the mid-1980s (Projects 8328 and 8804) funded research at the University of New England to help better understand and improve phosphorus and sulfur management in tropical agricultural systems. As tropical...