Goroka-Rome, 3 March 2026. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has announced its co-financing of Papua New Guinea’s AgriConnect Project, launched today in Goroka alongside the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and other partners. The initiative aims to transform small-scale farming into a driver of sustainable growth, employment, and food security by strengthening agribusinesses and connecting farmers to domestic and global food value chains.
Papua New Guinea’s AgriConnect focuses on reshaping the country’s agri-food system by creating a supportive ecosystem where agribusinesses play a central role in job creation. The project will help farmers and entrepreneurs produce and market crops more efficiently while improving access to markets, increasing productivity, and enhancing incomes for small-scale farmers.
Reehana Raza, IFAD Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, highlighted IFAD’s experience in linking small-scale farmers to markets and strengthening food value chains, emphasizing the partnership with the World Bank to expand the initiative’s impact. At the announcement of AgriConnect in October 2025, IFAD President Alvaro Lario pledged to reach at least 70 million small-scale farmers globally, aiming to improve their incomes, productive capacity, and market access by 2030.
As part of the initiative, IFAD and the World Bank will co-finance the Papua New Guinea Agriculture Commercialization and Diversification Phase 2 (PACD-2) project, marking the first AgriConnect collaboration between the two institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. The project directly supports Papua New Guinea’s goal of creating one million rural jobs by 2033, as outlined in the National Agriculture Sector Plan 2024–2033.
AgriConnect will address key barriers to private sector investment in agriculture, including the adoption of digital technologies to connect farmers with buyers and service providers, improved aggregation models linking small-scale farmers with agribusinesses, de-risking financial instruments, and policy and regulatory reforms to reduce business costs. Jing Pacturan, IFAD Country Director for PNG, noted that IFAD’s co-financing of PACD-2 will scale up ongoing operations, enabling more farmers to access markets and participate in a thriving food economy.
Since 2019, IFAD has supported small-scale farmers in Papua New Guinea through projects like the Market for Village Farmers, which encourages the production of fresh food for rural and urban markets. This project, valued at US$46.8 million, is funded through a combination of IFAD loans, government contributions, and private participation, with an additional US$18 million approved in December 2025 to expand its impact.
IFAD remains the only international financial institution focused exclusively on rural transformation, investing in communities to create jobs, resilient economies, and shared prosperity. Together with its partners, IFAD currently manages nearly US$23 billion in projects aimed at transforming food systems and improving rural livelihoods worldwide.
