“It was a great privilege and an honour…” Conference Reflections from our PNG Scholars

January 18, 2024

The Crawford Fund’s Annual Conference was held in September in Canberra and online. As well as bringing together the world’s leading experts in agricultural science, research, policy, development and industry, the Crawford Fund encourages the next generation in international agriculture for development to the event via scholarships awarded through our State and Territory committees and scholar supporters.

Our competitive conference scholarship program started in 2010 in the hope that by experiencing the Crawford Fund conference and network, our special program of activities around the conference and being mentored by inspirational experienced researchers, young researchers would be inspired and energised to be more involved. The results have been fantastic, with a great mix of youth and experience at our flagship event each year and a growing and enthusiastic conference scholar alumni approaching 450.

Our other activities to encourage university students and early career researcher include highlighting opportunities in volunteering for projects overseas; our work with Researchers in Agriculture for International Development (RAID), and our special international student awards to enable students to be involved in overseas projects as part of their university study.

One of the requirements of the scholarship is that each scholar provides us with a reflection on their experience. We have been providing these reflections over the past two months, grouped by State.

We would like to thank our wonderful mentors, mentioned alongside the scholar they supported, who volunteer their time and offer valuable guidance, support and insights to the scholars throughout the conference.

For the second time since the Scholar Conference Program began 13 years ago, two international scholars from Papua New Guinea were selected to attend the event, with generous support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Highlights of their experiences have been captured below:

Margaret Gene, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea

“A lesson that I learned throughout the conference and scholar day, is the power of networking and working together to address food security and climate change in the agriculture space to help humanity.”

Theresa Wambon-Kambuy, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea

“Through attending this conference and being able to participate in the discussions on the various topics, it enabled me to fully understand the deep relationship between research and agriculture extension.”

Read on for the full reflections of each scholar:

Margaret Gene, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
Mentor: David Shearer

Firstly, I would like to personally thank DFAT Australia for supporting Anna Yamanea and I, to come to Australia to attend the Annual Crawford Fund Conference in Canberra in September. I hope DFAT will continue to support Papua New Guinea and other developing countries in the Pacific for a food secure world in the nearer future.

Secondly, I would like to thank all the hardworking Crawford Fund Conference staff for making the event both a success and highly memorable.

I personally found the conference highly informative. All the presenters spoke about their research, experiences, challenges, and success stories throughout Asia-Pacific and the African continent.

A lesson that I learned throughout the conference and scholar day, is the power of networking and working together to address food security and climate change in the agriculture space to help humanity. Also, I was so impressed by the keynote speaker Dr. Eliane Ubalijoro who spoke about her own country Rwanda, the civil war and her success in the space of agro-forestry. 

Reflecting back to my beautiful country Papua New Guinea, everybody is currently excited and already celebrating our 48th Independence, but I am very mindful of how Papua New Guinea will venture fully into agriculture development. Anna Yamanea and I both work for the Government. ACIAR through the bilateral arrangements has worked with PNG for over 30 years with many projects and contributed to the improved productivity and sustainability of agriculture and food systems. 

One of ACIAR’s current project is on “Family Farm Teams Program”. This program provides a great network for Anna and I, as the government’s gender focal point to help women build their skills and knowledge in farming in Papua New Guinea with ACIAR. Members of the Crawford Fund and ACIAR PNG project team attended the conference and enhanced our networking.  

Finally, the Crawford Fund Conference is a platform for all the agricultural scientists in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and Africa to share their best research and findings to help humanity and create a pathway for us all on planet earth into the nearer future. Together, we can serve and preserve planet earth for tomorrow’s future. In the future, I am looking forward to further inclusion of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island scientists and scholars at the Crawford Fund Conference. 

Thank you.

Anna Yamanea, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
Mentor: Tania Paul

It was a great privilege and an honour to be given the opportunity to participate in the 2023 Crawford Fund Conference Scholarship Program. I wish to acknowledge the Crawford Fund for their undivided support and also appreciate the kind mentorship provided by Ms Tania Paul during the conference.

The 2023 Crawford Fund Annual Conference on Global Food Security in a Riskier World: Diversification for Resilient Food and Nutrition Systems was very well organised from the logistics, to the conference programs, to the final day scholar activities.

The 2023 Crawford Fund Annual Conference brought together some of the world’s finest leading agricultural scientists, researchers, policy developers and various players in the production and supply value chain together to share their knowledge and experiences with the participants and the young scholars.

The presentations on the various topics related to the global food security situation and the diversification for resilient food and nutrition systems practices was remarkable knowledge and experience sharing. The topic on “Climate Solutions for Healthy Diets, Nutrition and Health” by Dr Warren T.K. Lee of UN FAO provided in-depth knowledge on the impact of climate change to maintaining sound nutritional status of the global population.

Through attending this conference and being able to participate in the discussions on the various topics, it enabled me to fully understand the deep relationship between research and agriculture extension. The findings of all research must be made available to the consumers through the relevant approaches, in this case through the Agriculture Extension Approach.

One interesting activity that Margaret Gene and I participated in was the interview with ABC Australia. Our very sincere appreciation to our mentor, Ms Tania Paul for ensuring that the interview proceeded as planned.

Finally, I on behalf of the National Department of Agriculture and Livestock of Papua New Guinea, would like to sincerely acknowledge the Crawford Fund and DFAT for funding our travel to participate in this Conference. I would also like to acknowledge the hardworking team at the Crawford Fund, with a special mention for Ms Cathy Reade for her leadership. Thank you all.