Markham/Ramu Agricultural Growth Corridor : A Possible Path of Transformational Agricultural Development

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in investments from the government, development partners and the private sector in integrated development/growth corridors and other spatial development initiatives, where coordinated investments in transport infrastructure, power, communications and markets are expected to create conditions to unleash Papua New Guinea's undoubted agricultural potential. Growth corridor strategies are increasingly invoked to coordinate public and private investment around strategic backbone infrastructure in developing countries. Investments in soft and hard infrastructure to promote investment in processing zones or out-grower schemes and facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue aim to overcome coordination failures and bottlenecks related to market linkages or producer-relations to secure supply chains. This paper discusses the model of growth corridors as a tool for inclusive agricultural development in Papua New Guinea. It provides corridor and other spatial development approaches in terms of i) their geographical scope, ii) their objectives and iii) their governance mechanisms, the driving force behind the corridor initiative. Finally, it analyzes the potential and the needs of how the Markham and Ramu valleys can be a role model for an agricultural transformation in Papua New Guinea