Food security and income for villages in PNG through village chicken rearing and reef restoration

In September 2019 Kyeema commenced this project with training of six PNG Master Farmers in Fiji on coral reef gardening, village chicken breeding and rearing, permaculture and community consultation techniques. Once back in PNG, these Master Farmers have been responsible for setting up village chicken breeding farms and coral reef gardening sites.

To date, three village chicken breeding centres have been established (Vanapa and Tubusereia in Central Province and near Lae in Morobe Province), with work on a fourth centre underway in Gabagaba village, Central Province. Two coral reef gardening sites have been set up by our partner Hiri Coral in Bootless bay, close to Tubusereia. A baseline survey was conducted in late 2019 to understand community practices and to gauge interest in poultry raising and marine resource use and conservation. We are collating the data now. Master farmers have also been trained in monitoring and data collection for village chicken and coral reef gardening activities.

Village chickens at Tubusereia, Central Province

Professor Robyn Alders with local farmer in Vanapa, Central Province

Grace Manai (left), an Agricultural Extension Officer for the Central Provincial Government was one of the Master Farmers trained in Fiji. Read her story here.

Sadly, we couldn’t undertake the planned trial of our community training curricula in village chicken keeping scheduled for March due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, it will be the first activity we undertake when travel restrictions are lifted.

      This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).