Half a century of agricultural development in Papua New Guinea: A didiman reflects

Abstract

In May 1970, I flew from Port Moresby to Rabaul, via Lae, en route to my first posting as a research agronomist (didiman) in Papua and New Guinea (PNG). Looking from the aircraft at the tiny villages on both sides of the Owen Stanley Range, a moment of mild panic arose: What if I did not get to spend time in such villages? I need not have worried. Within weeks, I was learning about agriculture from ToBernard, ToPiritae and others in Napapar Village and spending time in villages in the Baining Mountains of New Britain and on New Ireland. Over the next 48 years, I have worked in villages in all 85 rural districts. By chance, the most recent fieldwork in mid-2018 has been in Morobe and Central provinces, not far from those villages that I saw from the air all those years ago.