The Role of price Subsidies in Agriculture in Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

In PNG,subsidies in the agriculture sector are related to major export tree crops such as coffee, cocoa, copra and oil palm and are aimed at helping the local producers. The role, function and welfare implications of price subsidies of the agriculture sector in PNG are addressed in the paper. The focus has been on subsidy schemes that are concerned with producer protection. In that respect deficiency payments, direct production subsidies, specific export subsidies and interest rate subsidies are discussed in detail. The recently established Agriculture Price Guarantee Scheme (APGS) is analyzed.