20 December, Lae, Papua New Guinea - David Stewart has been appointed as the new Country Director of Grow PNG, Grow Asia’s country chapter in Papua New Guinea.
David brings a wealth of management and operational expertise and will lead Grow PNG into a new era of agricultural growth and development, working with diverse stakeholders to accelerate the growth of the agriculture sector in the Markham Valley.
“I am pleased to welcome David to the Grow PNG team,” said Beverley Postma - Executive Director, Grow Asia. “I am confident that David’s leadership, experience, and proven track record for building commercial and community-level partnerships will prove invaluable to Grow PNG and to the wider Grow Asia network. I look forward to working with David to help Grow PNG achieve its vision of enabling the region’s smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods by forging stronger agricultural corridors in the Markham Valley.”
Grow PNG is supported by the Australian Government. Its purpose is to broker agri-investment partnerships with smallholder land groups primarily in the Markham and Ramu Valley to improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers.
“I am delighted to join Grow PNG at a time of increased opportunities and growth potential in the Markham/Ramu Valley Agricultural Growth Corridor,” said David Stewart - Country Director, Grow PNG. “Over the next twelve months, I am looking forward to creating more inclusive value chains by bringing together multiple stakeholders and brokering strategic relationships between farmers, businesses, public-sector stakeholders, and international development partners.”
David has a wide breadth of management and operational experience, with ten years as General Manager at NKW Fresh Produce, and will oversee Grow PNG’s operations. Over the last decade, David has also managed several successful Australian and New Zealand-funded development projects in Papua New Guinea, including a NZ$4 million Fresh Produce infrastructure project to improve fresh produce supply chains. David brings a diverse mix of experience of managing both people and projects with a proven track record of developing new revenue streams while working collaboratively with community groups and land owners.
Under David’s guidance, Grow PNG will continue to focus on supporting smallholder farmers in Morobe Province. Grow Asia and its partners are committed to enhancing Grow PNG’s initiatives to boost the agriculture sector's growth. The primary goal is to enable smallholder farmers to increase their income by 20%, significantly impacting their livelihoods.
About Grow Asia
Grow Asia was established by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015, to bring together governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other key stakeholders in the region to convene, facilitate, and scale efforts that promote more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems.
It does this by brokering commercial and non-profit partnerships at the field, level, regional, and global levels between more than 660 public, private, civil society, academic, and farmer organizations that make up the Grow Asia Network. This catalytic network creates an ecosystem that supports knowledge sharing, collaboration, innovation, and policy change.
To date, we have reached over 2.5 million smallholders and small rural enterprises. Through 6 Country Chapters and 44 value chains, our collective effort has increased farm incomes by $81 million a year for selected value chains and enabled more than 185,000 farms to adopt new technologies.
Grow Asia’s work is characterized by four operating principles:
Smallholder-focused, keeping the farmer at the center of all initiatives and investments.
Country-led and locally-driven, owned by stakeholders and aligned with national plans, strategies, and goals.
Multi-stakeholder and inclusive, engaging government, private sector, international organizations, civil society, farmer organizations and others.
Market-based, focusing on catalyzing and expanding sustainable, inclusive investments and market-based activities.
About Grow PNG
Launched in 2019, Grow PNG is based in Lae, Papua New Guinea, the gateway to the Markham Valley agricultural corridor. The corridor is on a pathway to rapid agricultural sector expansion driven by a range of crops including palm oil, cocoa, rice, cassava, and sorghum. Much of the corridor’s agricultural potential remains untapped, but a growing local population, investment in infrastructure, growth in the mining sector, and demand from Asia create opportunities and scope for development.
Grow PNG brings together business leaders, policymakers, and farmers to collaboratively unlock growth in the sector and facilitate new opportunities for farming families