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Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Kate Ambler

Kate Amber is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Kate’s research broadly focuses on interventions that can increase incomes for smallholders and other microenterprises in agrifood value chains, with a specific focus on the inclusion of women. This includes work on programming in fragile settings, innovations in agricultural finance, and regulatory solutions for food safety. 

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

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partnerships

The mission of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), a government agency, is to support research projects in agriculture-related fields in four developing regions – eastern and southern Africa, east Asia, south and west Asia, and Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. ACIAR research supports solutions to the agricultural difficulties in priority regions. Their research projects include such topics as crops, agribusiness, social sciences, forestry, livestock, and more.

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Projects

Inclusive Agricultural Value Chain Financing (IFS4Ag)

Inclusive Agricultural Value Chain Financing (IFS4Ag)

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face substantial constraints that limit their ability to reach their production potential. One such constraint is credit; Smallholders and other……

ASTI

ASTI

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Value Chains Knowledge Portal

Value Chains Knowledge Portal

The Value Chains knowledge portal (tools4valuechains.org) is a repository of tools and methods, publications, training content, and information about events related to value chain research……

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Publications

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Working Paper

Poultry value chain and cluster development in Papua New Guinea: Insights from a recent field study

2024Fang, Peixun; Gimiseve, Harry; Mukerjee, Rishabh; Schmidt, Emily; Zhang, Xiaobo
Details

Poultry value chain and cluster development in Papua New Guinea: Insights from a recent field study

Despite poultry being lauded as a relatively affordable source of protein and micronutrients in many lower-income countries, chicken meat is twice as expensive in PNG compared to nearby Southeast Asian countries. Recent rural household consumption data collected by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) suggests that an important share of households do not eat enough protein to meet healthy dietary guidelines (Schmidt et al., 2024). Poultry, along with fish and pork, are the three most important animal-source protein foods in the country, yet these products remain financially prohibitive to a large share of the population. This paper explores the unique challenges and opportunities within PNG’s poultry sector using a “growth diagnostic” approach (pioneered by Rodrik, 2010). Through interviews with key stakeholders across the poultry value chain, we found that while high feed costs persist as a significant challenge, poultry farmers have yet to adopt additional cost-reduction strategies, such as establishing small-scale regional feed mills, utilizing local feed ingredients, and diversifying feed and input imports. An intriguing puzzle of PNG’s poultry sector is the limited number of small-scale producers successfully transitioning to medium-scale operations. This primarily stems from high transport costs and restricted access to input and sales markets. The challenges of marketing chicken in PNG have received less attention than production. Drawing on the experiences of successful models in other countries and considering the specific situation of PNG’s poultry sector, fostering poultry production and processing clusters (e.g., in Lae suburban areas) emerges as a potential strategy to address production, transportation, and marketing constraints. By concentrating production, value chain clustering can enhance access to essential services (e.g. slaughtering and cold storage), improve market access, and reduce overall costs. While clustering holds promise for PNG’s poultry value chain, its success hinges upon joint action between the public and private sectors, as well as NGOs operating within the value chain.

Year published

2024

Authors

Fang, Peixun; Gimiseve, Harry; Mukerjee, Rishabh; Schmidt, Emily; Zhang, Xiaobo

Citation

Fang, Peixun; Gimiseve, Harry; Mukerjee, Rishabh; Schmidt, Emily; and Zhang, Xiaobo. 2024. Poultry value chain and cluster development in Papua New Guinea: Insights from a recent field study. Papua New Guinea Working Paper. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152443

Country/Region

Papua New Guinea

Keywords

Oceania; Poultry; Households; Livestock Feed; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Papua New Guinea rural household survey (2023): Synopsis of selected results

2024Schmidt, Emily; Yadav, Shweta
Details

Papua New Guinea rural household survey (2023): Synopsis of selected results

From May to December 2023, IFPRI implemented the 2023 PNG Rural Household Survey which was designed to understand rural livelihoods and welfare across different areas of PNG (Schmidt et al., 2024). Given the rural nature of the survey sample, almost all surveyed households depend on their own-farm production (predominantly starchy roots and tubers) to meet daily caloric needs. On average, households reported utilizing about 1.6 hectares of land for agriculture cultivation at the time of the survey. The survey collected a detailed account of the quantity of food types consumed by the household in order to estimate the average caloric intake per adult equivalent. Comparing the estimated caloric intake reported by surveyed households, with a recommended calorie intake suggests that only 45 per cent of individuals in surveyed households meet the recommended daily caloric intake for a lightly active individual. The survey also collected anthropometry data for children under five years of age and found that 36 percent of surveyed children were stunted in their growth. The 2023 Rural Household Survey represents an important effort in collecting a wide breadth of information about rural livelihoods. However, greater investments of in-depth data collection and analysis should be undertaken to examine specific components of PNG household livelihood strategies.

Year published

2024

Authors

Schmidt, Emily; Yadav, Shweta

Citation

Schmidt, Emily; and Yadav, Shweta. 2024. Papua New Guinea rural household survey (2023): Synopsis of selected results. Papua New Guinea Project Note 15. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149341

Country/Region

Papua New Guinea

Keywords

Melanesia; Oceania; Rural Population; Livelihoods; Welfare; Agricultural Production; Food; Anthropometry; Stunting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers

2023Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; Solomon, Elly
Details

Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers

Context: The average consumption of protein foods in Papua New Guinea (PNG) remains insufficient to meet nutritious diet guidelines, especially in rural areas. While an expanding literature has demonstrated that poultry is a cost-efficient animal source food to increase protein intake, rural households in PNG face high prices at the market for poultry meat. Similarly, the high price of poultry production inputs constrains greater uptake of rural poultry production. PNG’s heavy reliance on feed (and feed input) imports, as well as high transportation costs and insufficient rural manufacturing and processing infrastructure creates limited opportunities for rural subsistence and commercial poultry production growth. Objective: There is a lack of value chain studies to understand the feasibility of expanding the local mini livestock feed mill model in PNG to increase poultry feed supply in underserved areas. This study builds from earlier work on rural livestock feed infrastructure programs, and aims to fill the knowledge gap on the opportunities and constraints for expanding domestic livestock feed production and distribution via rural mini feed mills. Method: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 8 mini mills and 13 poultry farmers across 4 highland provinces during October and November 2022. We synthesize the interview transcriptions of the qualitative interviews in tandem with quantitative analysis of food consumption and agri-food trade data, as well as the authors’ own field observations in this paper. Results: The in-depth interviews showed that the poultry farmers who purchased from local mini feed mills substantially lowered their feed costs, resulting in greater gross profits compared to rural poultry farmers that only sourced feed from commercial feed suppliers. However, the mini feed mills that we interviewed outlined a series of challenges in sustaining rural feed mills in PNG. The main challenges of running a successful mill included feed mill equipment procurement, electricity reliability, reliable raw ingredient supply, mini mill retailing to secure a client base, and adequate information about feed formulation. We identified two potential approaches that have overcome many of the identified challenges, that could be replicated and adapted to expand mini feed mill operations in the Highlands. The first approach is a farmer cooperative model that incorporates credit and feed delivery services to cooperative farmers. In doing so, they are able to better estimate volume demand for processed feed and accommodate feed production accordingly. The second approach follows a lead firm model, whereby a local farm supply retail outlet is expanding its business to include livestock feed production and supply, overcoming equipment procurement constraints given their previously developed business model focused on farm implement supply. Our evaluation provides detailed costs and benefits of both approaches for potential expansion of these livestock feed producer and distributor models.

Year published

2023

Authors

Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; Solomon, Elly

Citation

Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; and Solomon, Elly. 2023. Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2193. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136756.

Country/Region

Papua New Guinea

Keywords

Oceania; Melanesia; Value Chains; Poultry; Foods; Production; Inputs; Equipment; Interviews; Nutrition; Proteins; Infrastructure; Livestock; Rural Areas; Prices; Food Supply Chains; Food Processing

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136756 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Seeds of Change Conference
IFPRI at External Event

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April 2 to 4, 2019

Seeds of Change Conference

IFPRI is participating extensively in the Seeds of Change conference— the first international conference on gender equality through agricultural research for development. This interdisciplinary conference brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields of social science and agriculture focusing on food/commodity/cash crops, subsistence/semi-subsistence sectors, supply chains, climate, forestry, fisheries, and water management. The conference is jointly funded […]

Science Forum 2018
IFPRI at External Event

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October 10 to 12, 2018

Science Forum 2018

IFPRI researchers and their case studies contribute to discussions on substantial interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals, the role of agricultural research in augmenting synergies, and managing trade-offs.

Blogs

Survey: Rural Papua New Guinea faces an array of food security challenges
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 18, 2024

Survey: Rural Papua New Guinea faces an array of food security challenges

By Emily Schmidt and Rishabh Mukerjee

Starch-heavy diets, the reach of extension instruction, and other issues.

Opportunities and challenges for coffee production in Papua New Guinea’s highlands
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 03, 2024

Opportunities and challenges for coffee production in Papua New Guinea’s highlands

By Rishabh Mukerjee, Helmtrude Sikas-Iha, and Damaris Warambukia

Survey insights on production, pests, and marketing.

Agricultural value chain finance can help drive Myanmar’s agricultural growth
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 11, 2021

Agricultural value chain finance can help drive Myanmar’s agricultural growth

By Siddhartha Basu, Alan de Brauw, Khin Pwint Oo, and Russell Toth

Overcoming limited access to banking and other services.

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