20. Towards Food, Nutrition and Income Security in Papua New Guinea Through Inland Fish Farming

The prevalence of under-five stunting is extremely high in PNG at 49.5% in 2015—more than twice the world average. This represents an increase from 43.9% in 2005 (Global Nutrition Report 2020). Stunting rates are higher in rural versus urban populations, with the highest rates in the Highlands Region (61.5%) and the lowest in the Islands Region (38.1%) (Hurney 2017). Stunting affects boys more than girls and increases rapidly in both sexes from six months to 24 months of age before plateauing between the ages of two and five (Hurney 2017). While stunting rates decrease with increasing wealth, the rate is still very high in the highest wealth quintile (35% in 2009–2010), indicating significant non-fiscal influences on childhood nutrition.

The prevalence of wasting in PNG was reported as 14.1% in 2015. In contrast to stunting, the wasting rate was highest in the Islands Region at 29.2% (Hurney 2017). Stunting and wasting are distinct conditions, reflecting chronic and acute undernutrition respectively. There is a stronger association between protein deficiency and stunting, whereas wasting represents a more general caloric deficit or a high incidence of infectious diseases, especially diarrhea (Bourke et al. 2016).

There is a strong association between childhood malnutrition and mortality. Undernutrition results in a weakened immune system and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases such as diarrheal disease, intestinal parasites, and malaria (Bourke et al. 2016). Wasting is associated with a nine-fold increase in mortality (UNICEF 2013). Undernutrition has been reported to have caused or contributed to one third of child deaths in hospital (PNG Department of Health 2015) with estimates as high as 76% for childhood deaths under age five in community and health centres (Schmidt et al. 2019).

The first 1,000 days of life are believed to be crucial in determining the structure and function of a child’s brain. Stunting impairs cognitive development and school performance. Cognitive damage is permanent and cannot be reversed with weight gain after the age of two (Martorell et al. 2010). Importantly, stunting has long-term effects on adult health. As stunted children enter middle childhood, a programmed metabolic shift occurs, resulting in propensity for rapid weight gain and the development of conditions such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke (Barker 1997; Gillespie and Haddad 2001).

The prevalence of metabolic diseases in adulthood is high in PNG (World Health Organization 2020). In 2016, 25.8% of women were obese and 58.1% were either overweight or obese. In men, 16.6% were obese and 47.4% were either overweight or obese. This represents an approximately 60% increase in the prevalence of obesity since 2005 (Global Nutrition Report 2020). Correspondingly, the rate of type 2 diabetes has dramatically increased. In 2016, diabetes affected 15.4% of men and 14.3% of women, representing an approximate 50% increase from 2005 (Global Nutrition Report 2020). Given the low rates of diabetes screening in PNG, this figure is likely to be a gross underestimation of the true prevalence of diabetes.

One in four adults have hypertension in PNG (Global Nutrition Report 2020). Whilst the prevalence of cardiovascular disease is not known, ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in adults (death rate 562 per 100,000 people), followed by stroke (198 per 100,000), with diabetes as the eighth leading cause of death (Global Health Index Data Exchange 2020; Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 2019) As obesity and diabetes rates continue to escalate, the burden of disease from metabolic non-communicable is expected to increase over the next decade.

The traditional diet in PNG is low in protein and high in carbohydrates, with tubers or cereals, rather than meat or fish, providing most of the protein intake (Schmidt et al. 2019). Even today, locally grown plant food provides 76% of total food energy and 57% of total protein intake, whereas imported rice and wheat provide just 14% of total food energy and 17% of total protein intake (Bourke et al. 2016).

The staple foods of PNG are root and tuber crops, sago, and banana, the latter two being more common on the coast. The most commonly grown crop is banana, followed by yam, taro, and sweet potato. Other commonly consumed starches include cereal such as rice or maize, Chinese taro, sago, and cassava (Schmidt et al. 2019). Coconuts, nuts, and green vegetables provide a smaller portion of energy intake, but a relatively greater contribution to protein intake (Bourke et al. 2009) The main staple consumed is dependent on the region. For example, in coastal or riverine areas, there is greater consumption of sago, with limited vegetables (Hurney 2017). In urban areas, the staple foods are rice and wheat in the form of instant noodles and bread. More processed foods, such as tinned meat and fish, are consumed compared to rural areas, and over 90% of food is purchased from stores or markets (Government of PNG 2016). Nevertheless, the urban diet is still high in carbohydrates and low in protein (Bourke et al. 2009).

Meat and fish only contribute 6% of food energy but 25% of protein intake in PNG (Bourke et al. 2009). The most common animal products consumed are fish, shellfish, pigs (usually eaten at ceremonies), chickens, and cattle, although the cost of beef is often too high to enable regular consumption. Often, unhealthy forms of meat, such as fatty lamb flaps, are consumed (Muntwile and Shelton 2000). The type of protein consumed is dependent on local production and cost. Approximately half of rural households own livestock or have a fish pond (Schmidt et al. 2019). Pigs and poultry are the most commonly owned livestock, but in the absence of refrigeration, slaughtered livestock has to be consumed quickly (Vira 2015). However, in areas on the coast or near rivers or lakes, fish is the main source of protein (Schmidt et al. 2019) albeit not eaten often due to the high market prices or lack of fishing gear. On average, the people of PNG consume considerably less fish per person than in many other Pacific and Asian countries (Bourke et al. 2009) despite the abundance of water to farm fish, and in the case of coastal communities, access to many edible marine species.

Farming of fish in earthen ponds (Fig. 20.2) is the dominant culture system in PNG, mainly due to the lower technology requirements of farming fish in earthen ponds, and land availability (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Smith 2007; Vira 2015; Tong 2018). The ponds provide a regular source of protein to households. Currently, there are two broad categories for pond-based farming based on level of intensity and farmer skills (Table 20.1, Sect. 20.3.2). Small-scale fishponds are constructed within or adjacent to vegetable gardens to utilize water that has been routed to irrigate crops. Integrating fish farming into the overall vegetable growing area helps to retain nutrients generated by the farms; pond effluent is discharged into the vegetable gardens, where it benefits crops.

A photograph of an aerial view of a typical earthen pond system in Eastern Highlands Province. It has 5 small rectangular-shaped ponds.

The majority of farms in PNG can be classified as ‘improved extensive’ because farmers use only small amounts of formulated feed, mainly because of the high cost of fish feed, and do not use any mechanical aeration to maintain dissolved oxygen, as occurs in the higher density systems in Asia (Gupta and Acosta 2004a, b). Narimbi et al. (2018) found that the common practice of irregular feeding with fish pellets (usually weekly) is more cost efficient than daily feeding for ponds with low stocking densities in PNG; fish were found to utilize natural food for growth, and daily feeding using pelleted feed led to wasted nutrients and poor feed conversion ratios. By contrast, intensive pond-based systems used in other countries depend on mechanical aeration of ponds, regular water exchanges to maintain water quality due to the higher stocking densities, and high-grade, formulated feeds to achieve their high yields (Gupta and Acosta 2004a, b). However, although improved extensive farming of fish usually depends on low stocking densities, most farmers in PNG do not effectively manage in-pond fish breeding due to a lack of husbandry knowledge or a lack of effort (Hiruy and Sammut 2019). Consequently, unmanaged ponds become overcrowded with the progeny of earlier stocked fish. Once tilapia reach reproduction age they may continue to breed, and this leads to higher feed requirements to maintain the growth performance of the fish. Additionally, water quality can deteriorate because of overcrowding.

To tackle the issue of overcrowding of ponds, lead farmers trained by NFA and the ACIAR project team have helped train other farmers to manage stocking densities by sexing fish and only farming males, which grow faster. However, this is a laborious and unwanted task, and the sex of tilapia cannot be determined until reproductive age is reached. To overcome this issue, NFA has trained farmers to produce and distribute all-male quality fingerlings. More recently, HAQDEC staff that were trained in hatchery practices in Asia (funded by NFA and Secretariat of the Pacific Community [SPC]) have successfully produced monosex fish (sex-reversed by hormone treatment to create all-male fingerlings) initially to support the ACIAR project’s research and then for distribution to farmers. The sex reversal methodology is now being adopted by satellite hatcheries established by NFA. Since 2019, all-male fingerlings have become available through NFA’s interventions thus eliminating the need to separate fish to prevent overcrowding of ponds.

Participating advanced farmers (Table 20.1) are often entrepreneurial, have better education, and have access to financial and social assets that enable them to invest in fish husbandry and quality fingerling production (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Vira 2015). Subsequently, their yields are higher than for small-scale farmers (Table 20.1), and income generation is a priority over food security. Nevertheless, many small-scale farmers are improving their practices as a result of training and are aspiring to produce fish for supplementary income (Vira 2015). The program, through NFA, is currently developing strategies to enable more small-scale farmers to transition to an advanced level of farming; these strategies include widening the extension and training program, building the technical capacity of the Provincial Fisheries Officers to improve access to technical information, and informing NFA’s development of a roadmap for aquaculture development.

Cage-based fish farming of tilapia (Fig. 20.3) is widely practiced in Asia, and was introduced to Yonki Reservoir, in EHP in 1994, five years after the reservoir was built. Initially the activity was not well received as the surrounding community preferred to exploit the wild fishery. Nevertheless, the stocking of the reservoir helped to provide protein to the communities surrounding the lake, as well as travellers along the Highlands Highway.

A photograph of a group of men standing on a wooden pathway in the waterbody. Bamboo tied together to form squares spaces are on both sides. A man holds a fishing net and another man holds a plastic bag with fish in it.

By the early to mid-2000s, wild fish stocks started declining due to unregulated fishing mainly through the indiscriminate use of various size gill nets that caught most age classes of fish thus reducing population recruitment (Wani 2004). The declining wild catches renewed interest in cage-based fish farming. By this time, the earlier access to wild fish had established a market chain for fish and an acceptance of fish as an alternative source of protein in communities that traditionally consumed pork—usually only during ceremonies—or other village livestock, such as chickens. A lack of quality fingerlings and access to feed, along with poor knowledge of fish husbandry, slowed the growth of the industry until NFA and ACIAR project staff, along with projects funded by SPC facilitated access to technology, knowledge, feed, and farm infrastructure. More recently, NFA facilitated the establishment of a hatchery at Yonki specializing in production of all-male fingerlings, which has alleviated pressure on HAQDEC to provide fingerlings to cage-based farmers. The success of the NFA-funded fingerling production training of lead farmers and project staff sent to the Asian Institute for Technology in Thailand, along with subsidized imported feed and nets in 2018, led to an increase in production (Hiruy and Sammut 2019). There is now a total of 77 semi-commercial cage fish farmers at Yonki Reservoir.

Cage fish farming at Sirinumu Reservoir, located in Central Province approximately 45 km east of Port Moresby, was introduced by NFA in 2003 after the landowners requested NFA to stock the reservoir with barramundi fingerlings to establish recreational fishing opportunities at the reservoir to bolster tourism. At the time, the sustainability of a recreational fishery was unknown, but the viability of cage-based farming was considered high due to the optimal water temperatures for tilapia growth compared to the colder water of Yonki Reservoir, thus enabling farmers to produce more crops each year. NFA proposed and supported cage fish farming rather than recreational fishing given that food security was a priority and income could still be generated from cage-based farming. As for Yonki Reservoir, accessibility to fingerlings and feed are still the main impediments to farming at this location. With the establishment of two satellite hatcheries for sex-reversed (all male) tilapia fingerlings and availability of NFA subsidized feed, semi-commercial tilapia farming on Sirinumu is accelerating and surrounding areas, and residents of Port Moresby have benefited from access to fish-based protein. There are now 100 full time semi-commercial fish famers on the reservoir. Most of the farmed fish is either sold fresh at the farm site or cooked and sold in the nearby township of Sogeri.

The strengths and weaknesses are largely internal factors that affect the sustainability of the industry. The tradition of farming is a key strength in PNG, despite the differences between growing fish and farming vegetables (Vira 2015). The concept of producing your own food is integral to subsistence farming in PNG and has helped farmers to adopt fish farming as a companion practice, mainly to address dietary protein deficiencies (Vira 2015). Although this is a strength, a related weakness is a poor understanding that fish, unlike vegetables, require a different skillset and more investment in husbandry to maximize yields (Tong 2018; Vira, 2015). Fish farming success depends on a supply of quality fingerlings, good fish feeding strategies, managing stock to reduce in-pond breeding, and maintaining good water quality. Farmers with a poor understanding of fingerling quality are likely to stock their ponds with stunted adult fish purchased at markets and passed off as fingerlings by unscrupulous sellers. The causes of stunting in fish include poor nutrition as a result of low-quality or expired feed, poor feeding strategies, environmental stress affecting appetite, or increased competition for feed due to farmers not removing the progeny of adult fish in ponds. Farmers report that ponds are overcrowded with progeny resulting from uncontrolled breeding (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Vira 2015) but they are unable to distinguish which fish are stunted from recently stocked fingerlings. Stunting can also occur if fish divert energy away from muscle growth to meet reproductive energy demands.

The high cost and poor access to quality formulated feeds is a major bottleneck to growth of the industry and a cause for poor farm yields. Fish feed accounts for more than half the production cost (El-Sayed 1999) and in PNG can be upwards of 70% if farmers feed their stock daily due to higher feed costs compared to other countries (Hiruy and Sammut 2019). Interviewed farmers complained that fish feed, when available, was too expensive, or that they had no understanding of the feeding frequency required to maximize their yields. Many farmers also do not keep records to determine their input and production costs, thus being unable to determine if fish farming is profitable. For subsistence farmers, producing fish for the household is not problematic since many do not depend on a high fish feed input, and fish of any size are considered edible. Nevertheless, increasing the size of farmed fish and improving farming efficiency can enable farmers to also sell excess fish after household protein needs are met. Project survey data suggest that up to 40% of excess fish are shared with others in the community, thus making protein more accessible. However, farmers that produce fish primarily for income are impacted by the high cost and low availability of fish feed in PNG, and this can lead to farm abandonment (Vira 2015). This is particularly the case for cage-based farmers who depend entirely on formulated fish to growth their fish. By contrast, small-scale pond-based fish farmers utilize natural food (e.g., insects and algae), fertilizer to enhance primary production, and vegetables or crop waste to supplement the diets of farmed fish (Narimbi et al. 2018; Parata et al. 2020).

The lack of road infrastructure in PNG, along with limited cold storage facilities and cold transport services, limits the distribution of fish from farming areas to markets (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Vira 2015). Consequently, farmers who are not located close to a major highway, or without access to cold storage, cannot sell fish to the more lucrative markets in urban areas. Regardless, transport costs in PNG are also high and a disincentive to small-scale farmers with low financial capital to distribute their fish more widely.

Support from members of the farmers’ wantok system is a key strength given that the high cost of labour associated with constructing farms is addressed by kin contributing to pond building and construction of water supply infrastructure (Tong 2018; Vira 2015). The wantok system is based on reciprocity and has enabled our various projects to build knowledge chains with lead farmers as nodes where wantoks intersect. Wantok translates to ‘one language’ or applied to people who speak the same dialect’ but can also be used to describe people of common kinship, social or religious groups, or ethnic identity (de Renzio 2000). Generally, it is a network of relationships and behaviours, and also a key source of social capital (Reilly 2001). Later in this chapter, more detail is provided on how working with lead farmers and utilizing the wantok system has enabled fish farming knowledge transfer in PNG. Social capital under the wantok system enables farmers to reach agreements on water resource sharing, which is critical to farmers who do not own land adjacent to a permanent water supply. Under the wantok system, farmers have built pipelines to transfer water to their kin, and in keeping with the spirit of reciprocity, the beneficiaries of shared water provide labour and other support to their wantoks. Farmers have also reported that under the wantok system, excess fish are shared, often to honour informal debt for assistance with pond construction and water sharing. This has facilitated better access to protein to wantok members who do not farm fish or livestock and has also fostered interest to eat and farm fish (Joe Alois, NFA, personal communication, Hiruy and Sammut 2019).

Opportunities listed in Table 20.2 are currently being explored or have recently been integrated into NFA’s strategic planning for inland aquaculture development. The growth of the industry has had a commensurate increased interest in farming as well as recognition, by government, of the value of fish farming to meeting the protein needs of people. This is reflected in the PNG Government’s various development strategies (e.g., amendment for the Fisheries Management Act 2015 to include aquaculture in its objectives). NFA’s Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries Unit is also investing more in the production of quality fingerlings and providing farmers with subsidized feed while efforts are underway to improve commercial supply of fish feed. For example, NFA is establishing satellite hatcheries through partnerships with provincial governments and farmers to overcome lack of fingerling supply that has, until recently, been limiting growth of the industry. Until this program was established, farmers relied on HAQDEC, which could not meet the demand for fingerlings, and advanced farmers, who are not always able to deliver fingerlings to other provinces. In partnership with ACIAR-funded projects, NFA is also investing more in farmer training programs for extension staff and farmers and transferring technical knowledge from research projects to formal training programs at universities, colleges, and training centres.

In recent years, advanced pond-based farmers and local entrepreneurs have been responsible for the surge in cage-based farming, utilizing the water resources of artificial reservoirs. With support from NFA and SPC projects, farmers have developed business plans and have been provided business start-up support. The ACIAR-funded program of research is expanding to tackle the bottlenecks for cage-based farming, mainly to address fish nutrition challenges, and to determine the carrying capacity of reservoirs and develop better management practices to meet economic and environmental goals. To date there are no guidelines for cage-based farming in the PNG context, thus the team is shifting some of the research focus towards developing better management practices that minimize environmental impacts and maximize fish production. Similarly, the project team is working with NFA to develop better decision-making processes so that the cage-based industry grows sustainably and does not cause environmental degradation, as has occurred elsewhere in the world.

A threat to food system security lies in that many of the raw ingredients for fish feed are utilized for other livestock (Glatz 2012; Glatz et al. 2013). The lack of affordable fish feed has been temporarily addressed by NFA importing feed from Vietnam and subsidizing the cost for farmers. This approach is considered a short-term intervention. Accordingly, NFA is developing strategies, in partnership with the NFA-UNSW ACIAR-funded projects, to facilitate local feed production and to reduce the cost of feed ingredients for commercial and farm-based milling of pellets. The program of research is entering a new phase that involves breaking the dependency on imported feeds and to utilize alternative, locally sourced feed ingredients for medium-scale, pond-based farming and cage-based production, and strategies to improve natural food production for small-scale farms.

Theft of fish is prevalent in PNG and a major reported threat. Farmers often report that entire fish crops are stolen usually as they near harvest size. Farmers are building new houses closer to their ponds to monitor their crops (Vira 2015) but fencing to secure farms is too expensive for small-scale farmers. Jealousy can often lead to sabotage, such as poisoning fish crops with plant-based toxins or chemicals. Early in the program, trout farms in EHP were affected by regular sabotage of stock to the point that some farms ceased operation. Such events are also blamed on sorcery leading to tribal fighting (Sister Pauline Kagl, Sisters of Notre Dame, personal communication). On one hand, tribal fighting, which is commonplace in PNG (Reilly 2008), can lead to destruction of farming infrastructure, prevent farmers from accessing their ponds and also impact technical support for farmers due to risk to extension staff. On the other hand, fish farming has also helped to reduce or end tribal conflicts in the highlands of PNG by bringing tribal fighters together to share resources and build ponds (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Vira 2015).

The genetic robustness of tilapia in PNG is also a threat, but yet to be investigated (Vira 2015). GIFT is the most widely farmed tilapia strain in PNG and all GIFT can be sourced to nine fish that were imported in 1999 by the JICA project. The extent to which inbreeding has affected the genetic robustness and the growth and reproductive performance of GIFT is unknown but nonetheless considered a threat by NFA (Vira 2015). Interestingly, fast growing and larger GIFT are reported from the Fly River in Western Province, and it is postulated that tilapia farmed on the Indonesian side of New Guinea could have contributed to the genetic profile of fish in this system via escapes or translocation by fish farmers who regularly cross the border. Alternatively, accelerated natural selection of fast-growing GIFT may have occurred. Plans by NFA to introduce new GIFT broodstock from Asia are currently deferred due to the risk of introducing Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) which has devastated tilapia farming in other countries (Jansen et al. 2019). Nevertheless, there is risk of TiLV entering PNG from Indonesia (currently TiLV free), most likely via the Fly River in Western Province where a section of the river forms part of the border. There is currently no biosecurity plan to address this risk in PNG.

PNG has complex social networks (Baynes et al. 2017; Nanau 2011) that can be utilized to share knowledge on fish farming and nutrition. In PNG, the wantok system can often provide social welfare support utilizing well-established relationships, and trust and cooperation with other wantoks (de Renzio 2000). Accordingly, communities with a high level of social capital in PNG are likely to have greater capacity at collectively solving problems or facing new challenges largely through trust that facilitates sharing of time and effort (de Renzio 2000); thus, the social capital of a wantok can help new fish farmers to address the labour-intensive needs of establishing new ponds, as well as facilitating the sharing of new knowledge, fingerlings, and resources such as water needed to start farming fish (Vira 2015; Tong 2018; Hiruy and Sammut 2019).

With this understanding of wantoks, and the team and partner agency staff and NGOs belonging to various wantoks in the area of activity, it has been possible to promulgate new technologies and fish farming knowledge across PNG. Additionally, knowledge on the health benefits of consuming fish is shared. Earlier projects identified the importance of training and mentoring lead farmers (advanced farmers). These farmers were and continue to be identified and trained by NFA, the ACIAR Project team, other donor agencies and NGOs, to establish de facto fish farming trainers and advocates for better farming practices and promoting fish as a healthy source of protein. They also provide feedback from farmers on the partnerships’ interventions, as well as helping to understand farmer needs. The selected lead farmers are often community leaders or have established a successful farming operation that has brought them status. Under the ACIAR projects, and through NFA’s training interventions, advanced farmers are taught all aspects of fish farming, mainly site selection, fish husbandry, fish feed production, pond maintenance, harvest methods, and business management. As these projects produce new knowledge and technologies, the outputs are transferred to lead farmers who then disseminate the outputs more widely via their wantoks. Mentoring of lead farmers is undertaken by the project team and Provincial Fisheries Officers and facilitated by NFA’s extension programs. Lead farmers are also trained and mentored by the project partners, for example, The Sisters of Notre Dame, a Catholic order of sisters who are embedded in the project. The Sisters of Notre Dame have combined fish farming training with their missionary work in remote areas thus helping the umbrella program of extension, managed by NFA and the ACIAR project team, to extend its reach. The Sisters also promote the nutritional benefits of fish to children and adults. NFA also provides financial support and training to Provincial Fisheries Officers in major fish farming provinces, and also supports various NGOs that provide livelihoods training.

The Sisters of Notre Dame, at the Maria Kwin Training Centre in Jiwaka, also deliver certificate-level fish farming training to lead and other farmers, as well as training women ostracized from their community due to sorcery accusations or have fled because of domestic violence (Fig. 20.4). The Maria Kwin Centre also formally trains former drug addicts, single mothers, delinquent youths, gang members and people, who have faced financial hardship, to create a livelihood. The Sisters also use fish farming in their Personal Viability Training Program, a formal program that aims to build self-respect and self-esteem, improve gender relations, reduce violence against women, and develop positive social behaviour. The NFA National Fisheries College in Kavieng also provides certificate-level training with selected farmers sponsored by NFA to attend courses at the College. Selected lead farmers have also been trained by SPC projects, and some sent to Asia to receive training in specialized areas, such as hatchery production of fingerlings. The ACIAR project team also coordinates formal training programs for NGOs and farmer groups.

Through NFA, these project technologies and farming knowledge are also transferred to Provincial Fisheries Officers who provide further technical support to farmers. For example, trained Provincial Fisheries Officers, including staff embedded on the project, have established satellite hatcheries and fish farms in Morobe Province where they also coordinate training programs and are working with the local prison to establish fish ponds. However, the lack of resources and funding issues limits the ability of trained Provincial Fisheries Officers to undertake field activities (Hiruy and Sammut 2019; Tong 2018; Vira 2015); this is issue is being tackled by the NFA through a roadmap for strategic development of inland aquaculture in which increased support for Provincial Fisheries Officers is flagged as a key intervention.

The Fish for Schools program was established by the National Fisheries Authority of PNG to develop an interest in fish farming as a future livelihood option in youths, to build fish farming skills for high school students unlikely to continue to tertiary-level study, and to enable teachers to use fish farming to support teaching. Teachers, for example, use the fishponds to teach human nutrition, ecology, biology, physics, mathematics, economics, agriculture, and physics. Technical information is provided by the NFA staff and draws on training in fish husbandry developed under the ACIAR and NFA-funded projects. As farming technology from the research projects becomes available, it is transferred to the Fish for Schools program. Additionally, the program has provided access to fish in school canteens, raised awareness of the nutritional value of fish, and facilitated knowledge transfer to nearby communities, mainly through school children sharing knowledge with their parents and partly through the presence of the fish farms on school campuses; the fish farms have drawn interest in fish farming in the wider community.

The Fish for Prisons program was initiated by NFA in partnership with the PNG Correctional Services. The primary goal of the program is to build skills in fish farming for prisoners to provide a livelihood option for their release. For many prisoners, re-entering the workforce is challenging due to the stigma associated with a criminal record and a lack of skills. Released prisoners lose status in their community and are often alienated. Without an opportunity to earn income or draw on the support of their community, the risk of re-offending is high. From the outset, it was theorized by the founders of the program that skills in fish farming could break the cycle of crime and repeated incarceration. Furthermore, the program was designed to build self-esteem in prisoners, which is often already low before incarceration and made worse by being kept away from family and communities during their term. Through involvement in this NFA program, the project team has worked alongside prisoners through training activities and by mentoring them through all stages of fish production. This process has built trust between the NFA, the project team members, and the prisoners, facilitated information exchange, and built a rapport with prisoners that has been critical to improving their feelings of self-worth and restoring their dignity. Most released prisoners have also maintained communication with the project team, seeking technical advice and mentorship. The prisoners construct the ponds, manage the water supply, stock, feed fish, monitor the health of the stock, and conduct day-to-day pond maintenance such as clearing weeds, repairing pond walls and canals, and evaluating the condition of the fish. The prisoners also harvest their fish for the prison kitchen thus providing access to much needed protein. The themes of hope and restoring dignity are regularly communicated by the prisoners to the project team.

Gaius (surname withheld), serving a 28-year term, speaks of how fish farming has given him hope and will one day enable him to become ‘somebody’:

When I came to prison I thought I have no choice or I have no hope. I think I will just stay here in prison, and when I release (sic), I go back. I have no choice (future choices), because I am in prison and everything is gone, and I will just go and stay a poor person. I am happy that when I finish, when I release (sic) from prison, and I go back to my home, I’ll do that job (fish farming). I’ll try and look after fish because my area has many good rivers, many good creeks from the mountain to valley, so I can dig some fish ponds and look after fish, so I get some knowledge (from the training program), and then go back to my home, I’ll become somebody.

Prison Officers, who have worked alongside our team and the prisoners, have also built skills in fish farming and some have incorporated fish farming into their retirement planning. Under our previous project we also conducted similar training with retiring military staff to provide a livelihood post-government service. Currently, the Fish for Prisons program has involved men’s prisons, but plans for extending the program to women’s prisons are under consideration by NFA and the PNG Correctional Services.

The project team has also mentored and monitored prisoners following their release from prison, including some who were released over a decade ago and who have now fully regained status in the community and become lead farmers. To the best of the project team’s knowledge, and based on the records of participating prisons, former inmates who were trained under the program have not re-offended. Fish farming has provided an opportunity to demonstrate to their communities their capacity to apply themselves to a livelihood rather than to be seen as a probable re-offender. Over time, the success of fish farming draws interest from others, and sharing of knowledge and excess fingerlings have helped to restore dignity in ex-prisoners and elevate their status.

Moxy (surname withheld), is a long-term participant of the program. Trained by NFA at Bihute Prison during his prison term and released over a decade ago, Moxy is known locally as “Daddy Fish”, which is not just a light-hearted nickname, but a name that reinforces his status as a lead farmer in his district. Moxy is both amused and proud of this nickname, with the pride clearly of more importance as he communicates to his mentors from our team of the significant positive impact of fish farming. Following his release from prison, Moxy built his own ponds in the shadow of scepticism from his community but with supervision from NFA staff based in nearby Goroka. At the time he was still seen as a criminal outside of his family and close friends thus having limited access to the community’s social capital, principally labour to dig ponds and financial support. He was successful at establishing ponds and producing reliable crops, and this drew attention from other fish farmers and people interested in building fishponds. Within several years of establishing his own farm, Moxy’s ponds became an unofficial demonstration site, and he became an advocate for fish farming, and a lead farmer and trainer under our program. His status was renewed, and in his opinion, it was higher than before his incarceration. His fish farm business, which also involves his wife and adult children, provides sufficient income to maintain the household, and to access better medical services and education for his school-age children. Moxy describes how his fish farm has enabled him to live an honest life:

Sometimes, when I feel could do wrong again, I come down to my fish farm and I look at what I have achieved. It brings me peace. It stops me from doing wrong. Working with fish calms me down and I feel proud of what I have created.

This feeling is sentimentally repeated to the project team by Moxy during site visits, and similar remarks are heard from former raskol gang members. Moxy’s community peers also mention the transformation in Moxy since his release from prison and speak of the inspiration gained from seeing his success. Since his release from prison, Moxy has worked alongside the ACIAR project team at farmer field days and other events where the project team conduct extension support to farmers. His role as a communicator of knowledge and a champion for fish farming has led to more farmers adopting technologies and practices developed by the NFA and ACIAR-funded projects.

Raskol is a PNG term for gang members who are known for violent crimes. Raskol gangs are usually active in impoverished areas, particularly in remote areas where police resources are limited. Raskol gangs are also active in and around the settlements in major urban areas such as Port Moresby and Lae. The NFA and ACIAR-funded projects include project partners that operate in areas where raskol gang activity is prevalent. Raskol gangs have participated in fish farming training delivered by the project team to farmers in the highlands, and also via the Sisters of Notre Dame who have outreach programs in remote areas. As a result of skill building, and the positive social interaction between the extension staff and gang members, Raskol gang members have developed a better appreciation of their worth to their community and society. The responsibility and rewards from fish farming have increased self-esteem and enabled former gang members to set goals and develop strategies to develop their farms.

Fish farming gives them purpose and helps them to redeem themselves and to atone, and this enables acceptance by the community. They don’t want to be seen as gang members once they realize what they can achieve through fish farming. It is their ticket back to society. (Sister Pauline Kagl, Sisters of Notre Dame)

Of note is the impact of fish farming training on crime reduction along the Highlands Highway, the only roadway that links the Highlands to the coast. In areas where fish farming has been adopted, villagers have reported a decline in crime committed by raskols, as well as reduced youth delinquency (Sister Pauline Kagl, Sisters of Notre Dame, personal communication). The ‘Barola Hotspot’, a short stretch of the highlands highway near the major township of Kainantu in EHP, was well known for carjacking, rapes, roadside robberies, and other violent crimes against travellers. Through fish farming training conducted by the project team, raskol gang members abandoned their criminal activities at this location. Their participation was uninvited, but they were drawn in by curiosity and accepted into the training program. Within a year of training, the participants had cleared marijuana crops to construct ponds, contributed to the construction of ponds for the community, and also helped to establish a fish farming training centre in partnership with the local community and government. Joe Alois, staff of NFA and a trainer under our program noted:

At the launch of the aquaculture training centre at Barola, the former raskol gang burnt drugs and weapons to demonstrate a commitment to a new life. Since the training, the Barola Hotspot has been free of violent crimes. We mentor the former raskols, who we now treat as fish farmers and ensure they have the technical support to keep succeeding.

Similar reduction of crime along the Highlands Highway has been attributed to the training provided by the project partner, the Sisters of Notre Dame, and also by lead farmers trained under NFA and our extension program (Hiruy and Sammut, 2019). Interviewees reported that fish farmers depend on social networks and that raskols must work harder to be accepted back into a wantok; initially, this is a challenge for raskols, but their contribution to pond construction helps to foster acceptance by the community (Sister Pauline Kagl, Sisters of Notre Dame, personal communication 2018). The responsibility and comradery needed to develop farms and share resources, reduces the idleness that underpins anti-social behaviour. Nevertheless, social problems such as jealousy and subsequent sabotage of farms, as well as theft of stock, remain a problem (Vira 2015) and are difficult to address.