‘Just like working for the dole’: Rural households, export crops and state subsidies in Papua New Guinea

MacWilliam, Scott

doi:10.1080/03066159608438619

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Men's role in export cash crops was reinforced by the colonial administration's agricultural extension services that were staffed by men with services directed largely to village men (McKillop ). Also, the plantation labouring opportunities available to village men both in the highlands and coastal areas, who were contracted under labour migration agreements, gave them their first taste of export cash crop production and facilitated the adoption of export cash crops in rural villagers (Turner ; Ward ; MacWilliam ). Men came to dominate and control export cash cropping at the household level with the near total exclusion of women from this sphere of economic activity, except as a source of underpaid or unpaid labour (Clark ; Bannister ; Overfield ; Benediktsson ; Koczberski ).…”

Section: The Gendered Production Of Export Cash Crops and Food Crops mentioning

confidence: 99%

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Curry

Koczberski

Inu³

2019

Oceania

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Fresh food markets have been a fixture of the social and economic landscape of urban and rural PNG since colonial times. They were often the first points of engagement with the market economy, especially for women, who as small‐scale producers, sold surplus produce from their food gardens located on communally‐owned land. Although local food markets have remained an important livelihood for women, the later adoption and expansion of perennial export cash crops like coffee and cocoa overshadowed food production for local markets as men dominated export crop production on land alienated from communal ownership for decades or permanently. New forms of social relations of production and more exclusive forms of land tenure emerged to accommodate export crop production that were very different from those governing the production and marketing of fresh food. Market values and a trend towards individualisation of production with less capacity to mobilise labour through reciprocal labour exchange networks have characterised export crop production. With the income benefits captured largely by men, women began redirecting their labour to fresh food production where they were able to exercise more control of production and income while still mobilising labour through indigenous labour exchange arrangements. Attempts by men to appropriate the income of women and sons’ labour in export cropping were greater during flush periods when income levels were high, and they were less likely to attempt to appropriate this income in low crop periods when incomes were lower. However, with the recent emergence of female entrepreneurers earning relatively large sums of money in large‐scale, profit‐driven vegetable production, the moral frameworks governing food production are coming to resemble those governing export crops, and making labour more difficult to mobilise. Despite women being key players in these changes, we argue there is an emerging risk that men will attempt to assert control over this income or move into vegetable production themselves and possibly marginalise women in the process.

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Section: The Gendered Production Of Export Cash Crops and Food Crops mentioning

confidence: 99%

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Curry

Koczberski

Inu³

2019

Oceania

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“…Stabilisation funds, initially intended to smooth out price fluctuations on international markets and maintain price incentives to keep smallholders increasing production, became, instead, welfare payments. In the words of one agricultural adviser, payments from the funds to smallholders for marketed produce became 'just like working for the dole' (MacWilliam, 1996).…”

Section: Reactionary Ruralismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crunch-time for the University of Papua New Guinea

MacWilliam¹

2014

PJR

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After a promising start as the place where many of the country’s future leaders were educated, the University of Papua New Guinea is now a shadow of its former self. With minimal international support and destructive government policies ranking tertiary education of little importance for development, UPNG now operates on a budget totally inadequate to run a contemporary university. The minimal coverage of UPNG’s decline in the national media is reflected in a poorly run journalism programme which has had a stop-start history. By comparison, the University of the South Pacific thrives and its management set targets to raise the proportion of people from member countries who attend tertiary education. International support, financial as well as supervisory, continues to make a major contribution to USP’s operations. During major crises in Fiji, where USP’s main campus is located, journalism students at the university have performed exemplary roles. Even the controversies which repeatedly surface about the programme indicate its continuing importance at USP. This essay argues that only the formation of a substantial consortium, with international donors joining a PNG government committed to a dramatic reversal of policy, can rescue what began as the country’s premier tertiary institution. The demand for skilled and managerial labour in the South Pacific’s second largest country, by population, requires a revitalised UPNG which could in turn lead a major reform of tertiary education and indeed all education.

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“A Road With No End”: Making the South Pacific a Permanent Labour Reserve

MacWilliam

2022

Journal of Contemporary Asia

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‘Just like working for the dole’: Rural households, export crops and state subsidies in Papua New Guinea

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Crunch-time for the University of Papua New Guinea

“A Road With No End”: Making the South Pacific a Permanent Labour Reserve

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