Enhancing ecosystem functioning to improve sustainability of subsistence farming in Papua New Guinea

在人口增长和气候变化的背景下，增加高生物多样性地区的农业生产是一个日益严峻的挑战。这种压力与巴布亚新几内亚(PNG)尤其相关，该国拥有世界第三大热带森林面积，85%的人口几乎完全依赖小规模自给农业。迫切需要提供干预措施，为巴布亚新几内亚自给自足的农业提供潜在的解决方案，以提高作物生产力和复原力，同时保护其天然森林。该项目将调查整个农业景观的地上和地下生态系统功能，以及如何加强有益的生态系统服务，以提高自给自足农业的生产力和可持续性，包括测试提高土壤肥力的新技术。

Increasing agricultural production in high biodiversity areas, against the backdrop of a growing population, and climate change, is an increasing challenge. Such pressures are particularly relevant to Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has the third largest area of tropical forest worldwide, and where eighty-five percent of the population depends almost entirely on small-scale, subsistence agriculture. There is a drastic need to provide interventions that will deliver potential solutions to PNG subsistence farming to increase crop productivity and resilience at the same time as conserving their natural forest. This project will investigate above- and below-ground ecosystem functioning across the agricultural landscape, and how beneficial ecosystem services can be enhanced to improve productivity and sustainability of subsistence farming, including testing novel techniques to enhance soil fertility.