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11 - The sustainability of food production in Papua New Guinea

from Part I - Sustainable Development: Theories and Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

By
Bryant J. Allen  and
R. Michael Bourke
Edited by
Pak Sum Low
Pak Sum Low
Affiliation:
Xiamen University Malaysia
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Summary

More than 80% of the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) live in rural areas and produce most of the calories they consume. The rest comes from imported food, mainly rice and wheat. An estimated 83% of all food energy consumed in PNG in 2006 was derived from locally grown food. Rapid population change, an HIV/AIDS epidemic, and global climate change are the main threats to the sustainable production of this food into the future. Rapid population change threatens to bring about land degradation in shifting cultivation systems; also, HIV/AIDS will slow population growth but will selectively remove working-age people from the population, while the outcomes of global warming are less certain. Global warming is apparent in rises in temperatures and some observable changes in plant distributions. If global climate change increases the frequency of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, then food production will be adversely affected. On the other hand, global warming may have some positive effects. Governance in PNG is poor, so rural people will have to face the outcomes of these three threats largely using their own resources of resilience, innovativeness, and hard work.

Keywords

Papua New Guinea;food production systems;imported food;global climate change;HIV/AIDS;population growth;ENSO;shifting cultivation;land degradation;cash incomes;governance
Type
Chapter
Information
Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives , pp. 108 - 124
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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