Agriculture and Land Distribution in Papua New Guinea

The Independent State of Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, which is the second largest island in the world. The island of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean was originally divided at the end of the 19th century between the British and German colonial empires. The Independent State of Papua New Guinea gained independence from British administration, which was exerted from Australia, in 1975. The country is composed of a large main island, shared with Indonesia, and several smaller islands towards the east. Currently, Papua New Guinea has a total territory of almost 463.000 square kilometers, which is somewhat larger than California. A mostly mountainous interior as well as lowlands along the 5.152 kilometers of coastline dominate the country. Likewise, Papua New Guinea has a total population of approximately 7.5 million, less than 15% of which live in an urban setting, notably the capital city of Port Moresby with 350.000 inhabitants. The national annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Papua New Guinea is about US$28 billion (PPP) and it has experienced positive economic growth upwards of 2.0% in recent years. The Papua New Guinean economy is divided into 22% agriculture, 38% manufacturing, and 40% services. Similarly, it is estimated that the agricultural industry employs 85% of the national labor force. Meanwhile, the agriculture industry utilizes 3% of the national territory, while another 63% is forested.

Agriculture and Land Distribution in Papua New Guinea

In terms of natural resources, Papua New Guinea has gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, and fisheries. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on copra crushing (from coconuts), palm oil processing, plywood production, wood chip production, mining, crude oil and petroleum processing, and construction. Likewise, an important sector of the economy is devoted to the tourism industry. Simultaneously, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products coffee, cocoa, copra, palm kernels, tea, sugar, rubber, sweet potatoes, fruit, vegetables, vanilla, poultry, pork, and shellfish. During 2015, Papua New Guinea imported US$4.6 billion worth of goods and exported US$9.1 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$4.5 billion. Furthermore, that same year, Papua New Guinea’s main export, representing 38% or US$3.5 billion of the country’s total, was liquefied natural gas. Similarly, the country’s main import, representing 11% or US$500 million of all international purchases, was refined petroleum. In terms of trade, Papua New Guinea’s main partners are Australia, China, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and the European Union.

Land distribution and output in Papua New Guinea have also evolved throughout the last half century. Back in 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in the country covered 70.000 hectares, while arable land represented 75.000 hectares and permanent crops accounted for 350.000 hectares. More recently, by 2014, permanent pastures and meadows accounted for 190.000 hectares, while arable land represented 300.000 hectares and permanent crops covered 700.000 hectares. Similarly, in 1961, the cereals market in Papua New Guinea utilized some 660 hectares of land and yielded 1.850 metric tons annually. Finally, in 2014, the country devoted almost 3.860 hectares of land to cereals production and yielded approximately 18.000 metric tons.

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