Assessing the economic impacts of constraints encountered by the small holder Coffee farming communities in Goroka district in eastern highlands province in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Coffee is Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s second-largest agricultural export, after oil palm, and it employs approximately three million people. In terms of land usage, it covers around 40000 hectares and produces around 1% of world coffee production and is the second-largest producer of washed arabica coffee in Asia and the Pacific region. Coffee ranks as the second most significant agricultural product, making up over a 13% of the total agricultural export revenue (156 USD millions for 2024) in PNG. Most of the coffee is grown in the Eastern Highland Province, the Western Highland Province, and the Simbu areas, but in all these areas, significant portion of harvest is stolen due to the country’s deteriorating law and order and increasing inequality and poverty situation (Coffee Industry Corporation Limited, 2023). However, these coffee cultivation and processing communities are increasingly facing the challenges posed by climate change, non-availability of agricultural inputs with proper government intervention, and the non-existence of economic success factors conducive to coffee cultivation. Climate change is characterized by shifts in temperature, unknown emerging crop diseases, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events, all of which can have profound effects on coffee production and quality (Bilan, C. and et.al, 2022). Furthermore, the non-availability of agricultural inputs with appropriate government intervention, and the non-existence of economic success factors work as impediments to the growth of this important cash crop. In this context, this study assesses the overall economic impact of these three themes on smallholder coffee farming communities in Goroka district in Eastern Highland Province (hub of coffee production in PNG), including its implications on coffee factories, processes, and firms involved in the export value chain, and analyzes the profitability and financial viability of smallholder coffee farming operations in this district (Ezebilo, E., and Afolami, C., 2021). Finally, the study recom-mends potential policy interventions and support systems that can enhance the economic resil-ience of smallholder coffee-farming communities to climate change, non-availability of agricultural inputs with proper government intervention, and the non-existence of economic success factors conducive to coffee cultivation.