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Agricultural extension has played a central role in building the capacity of smallholders for decades. In efforts to improve extension outcomes, demand-driven approaches have emerged to better align extension content with smallholder context. The aim of this paper is to explore the challenges facing demand-driven extension in Papua New Guinea.

Exploratory case study methodology was used to explore the challenges facing demand-driven extension from the perspectives of 11 practitioners experienced in community engagement in Papua New Guinea.

Although there is great potential for demand-driven extension, this research found extension services in Papua New Guinea are ill-equipped to introduce and sustain a resource-intensive approach like demand-driven extension. It further found that rural farmers who extension organisations have long neglected lack the necessary skills and trust to gain from these services.

A limitation of this research is that it only reflects the opinions of practitioners working in Papua New Guinea. Further research featuring a broader sample of value chain actors connected to extension would provide a more complete understanding of the potential challenges to demand-driven engagement in this context.

With a growing interest among development projects to utilise demand-driven engagement with farmers, this research is the first study to explore the challenge facing this promising approach in Papua New Guinea.

The purpose of this paper twofold: first, to review the current state of knowledge regarding local value chain (LVC) interventions in the context of international agricultural research and development; and, secondly, by synthesising the empirical findings from LVC projects, to provide guidance for future research and intervention design.

This paper utilises systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis guidelines to review and synthesise recent research papers and case studies dealing specifically with the development of LVCs, authored by professionals affiliated with development agencies and international research consortiums.

The paper identifies a novel two-phase characterisation of LVC interventions. Phase 1 identifies opportunities for interventions, which are characterised as typologies and presented upon a spectrum of value chain functionality from underdeveloped to mature. Phase 2 is the selection and implementation of strategies to achieve the identified opportunities from Phase 1, and the paper characterises these strategies per the domain of value chain functionality which they target.

The interaction between context, socio-economic constraints and intervention strategies is still a poorly understood feature of value chain interventions, and the paper posits that a greater understanding of these interactions is crucial to the success of value chain interventions.

The paper provides the first synthesis of LVC interventions, while outlining research priorities and knowledge gaps required to design interventions which are consummate to the context and functionality of a prioritised chain.