The social Influences on the economic decision-making of smallholder cocoa producers in Papua New Guinea: The case of processing, transport and marketing

In Papua New Guinea, the cocoa industry has long been concerned with low smallholder productivity and the low adoption rate of research-induced technology (Proceedings of the National Cocoa Consultative Workshop 2003; Omuru et al. 2001). Recent production efficiency studies (Fleming and Lummani 2001) in smallholder cocoa production in the East New Britain province, have ascertained that many farmers are not performing to their full potential given existing technology levels. While uncovering some important findings regarding 'efficiency', these studies have given scant attention to the social context in which smallholder production is carried out. In particular, these studies ignored the fact that farmers' economic practices are greatly influenced by their society and culture. There is thus a need for supplementary studies regarding smallholder economic behaviour. This study fills this gap by investigating how social factors influence smallholders' decisions concerning the production, transportation and marketing of their cocoa. Prior to commencing this thesis, my preliminary investigations in East New Britain province suggested that transport costs bear little relationship to supply and demand market principles. For example, in 2004, a tonne load of copra cost K70 to transport to buyers in town, while a one tonne load of cocoa cost K320 over the same route. Transport costs and, similarly, marketing appear to be influenced greatly by non-market factors, such as kinship and perceptions about the relative value of the goods to be transported. Because PNG village economies exhibit a high degree of "social embeddedness", this study combines several theoretical and methodological approaches, to bring the social dimension into the analysis of cocoa economic practices.The thesis argues that socio-cultural factors greatly influence the economic behaviour and the entrepreneurial success of farmers. The results have important industry policy implications for designing agricultural extension strategies more appropriate to the socioeconomic situations of farmers

The use of activity diaries for understanding the daily lives of farmers and their livelihood choices

This paper reviews the use of activity diaries in two Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) projects in PNG: a smallholder cocoa project in the East New Britain province (ASEM/2006/127) and a smallholder coffee project in Eastern Highlands province (ASEM/2008/036). Both projects were similarly concerned with identifying the production constraints on cocoa- and coffee-farming households and to better understand the range of socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing farmer decision-making and the allocation of household labour among various livelihood activities. In PNG, the household is the principal production unit underpinning livelihood activities such as commodity production. It is at the household level that decisions and negotiations are made regarding the organisation, mobilisation and management of family and extended family labour. Thus, examining in detail the daily economic and social livelihood activities of household members, through time-allocation studies, helps researchers to understand more comprehensively the factors influencing smallholder decision-making regarding livelihood choices, agricultural practices and the adoption of agricultural innovations. This paper outlines two different techniques using activity diaries employed in the projects, and discusses the methodological advantages and challenges of these techniques in smallholder studies in PNG

Earning a living in PNG: From subsistence to a cash economy

This chapter addresses the question of how individuals and families in rural PNG respond to major livelihood threats as they make the transition from a subsistence mode of life to become increasingly integrated into the global economy through export cash cropping. Two case studies are presented: cocoa farmers on the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province (ENB) and oil palm migrant farmers residing on the Hoskins Land Settlement Scheme in West New Britain Province (WNB). The cocoa farming community of Gazelle Peninsula began growing cocoa on their customary land in the 1950s with encouragement by the Australian administration. Since 2006 they have been confronted with an introduced cocoa pest, Cocoa Pod Borer (CPB), which is devastating their cocoa crop and livelihoods. The migrant oil palm farmers voluntarily took up State agricultural leases of 6 ha blocks in the late 1960s and early 1970s and are now experiencing population and resource pressures as their children marry and begin raising their own families on their parents’ blocks. By examining the pressures emerging among farming households as they make the transition to a market economy, the chapter highlights some of the key challenges and pressures of contemporary rural life for people in the Global South such as declining access to land, increased dependence on cash, fluctuating cash crop prices and changing lifestyle values