Conference scholar reflections all the way from PNG
September 18, 2022
The Crawford Fund’s Annual Conference was held last month in Parliament House, Canberra. The event had a special flavour this year celebrating 35 years of the Crawford Fund and the 40th anniversary of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). These milestones provided an opportunity for all those who are a part of Australia’s rich history in agriculture for development to get together and celebrate and, also to reflect and to consider the work yet to be done.
As well as bringing together the world’s leading experts in agricultural science, research, policy, development and industry to address the conference topic, the Crawford Fund is committed to encouraging the next generation in international agriculture for development to the event via scholarships awarded through our State and Territory committees and scholar supporters.
Our conference scholarship program started in 2010 in the hope that by experiencing the Crawford Fund conference and network, our special program of activities around the conference and being mentored by inspirational experienced researchers, young researchers would be inspired and energised to be more involved. The results have been fantastic, with a great mix of youth and experience at our flagship event each August and a growing and enthusiastic conference scholar alumni approaching 400.
Our competitive Conference Scholarships are offered to young people with a genuine interest in international agricultural research and development to attend the conference and a special set of activities that we have developed since the program commenced in 2010.
Our other activities to encourage university students and early career researcher include highlighting opportunities in volunteering for projects overseas through the Australian Volunteers Program; our work with Researchers in Agriculture for International Development (RAID), and our special international student awards to enable students to be involved in overseas projects as part of their university study.
One of the requirements of the scholarship is that each scholar provides us with a reflection on their experience. We will be providing these reflections over the coming weeks, grouped by State.
Once again, we would like to thank our wonderful mentors, mentioned alongside the scholar they supported, who volunteer their time and offer valuable guidance, support and insights to the scholars throughout the conference.
For the first time, since the Scholar Conference Program began 12 years ago, two international scholars from Papua New Guinea were selected to attend the event, with generous support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Highlights of their experiences have been captured below:
Merie Dada Unagi, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
“Overall, the Crawford Fund 2022 Annual Conference gave me an insight into the bigger picture of the world’s food systems. It was a great learning experience for me, and I have captured some of the information that was presented at the conference into the current corporate plan that my department is working on. I wish to thank Crawford Fund and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for sponsoring my participation and hope that more scholars from PNG Agriculture Sector attend its programs in the future to enhance our understanding and share ideas to continue to advance Agriculture in the Pacific.”
Theresa Wambon-Kambuy, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
“As I shared my work and experiences and learned from other scholars in the group activities organised by the RAID team, I noticed the keen interest and supportive comments facilitators and mentors would give as encouragement and ideas to enhance individual capacity and work in research and extension. I was very impressed at all the guest speakers, panel speakers and moderators in all the sessions attended. The one thing that amazed me is that I was given that great opportunity to connect with very senior, high level experienced speakers and invitees who shared and networked together humbly at their lowest to get their key messages across to scholars like myself who only have a degree.”
Read on for the full reflections of each scholar:
Merie Dada Unagi, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
Mentor: Maddison Clonan
The Crawford Fund 2022 Annual Conference was an incredible experience and I feel so privileged to have attended as one of the first two scholars from Papua New Guinea. The conference had phenomenal speakers from various backgrounds presenting pressing challenges and way forward in agriculture particularly on food security, climate change, Covid 19’s impact on the food system and sharing experiences on work done in developing countries.
When I received the invite from the Crawford team to attend the Crawford Fund 2022 Annual Conference, I listed few goals that I would want to achieve from the conference. The goals I listed would, I believe, help me in my job as a policy officer in the agriculture sector. Networking and connect with like-minded professionals and fellow scholars, enhancing presentation and negotiating skills is a core area that my department needed to build capacity on.
To my satisfaction, I achieved some of those goals I set out to achieve and I am delighted to have connected with scholars and professionals from as far as New Zealand! My proposal to have presentation and negotiation skills included in an upcoming Crawford Fund Master Class was taken onboard by my Northern Territory team to raise in the board meeting. I am looking forward to a favorable outcome on that and hope that other PNG scholars especially in the agriculture sector can participate in the up-coming Master Class on the proposed topic as there is great need in that area.
Overall, the Crawford Fund 2022 Annual Conference gave me an insight into the bigger picture of the world’s food systems. It was a great learning experience for me, and I have captured some of the information that was presented at the conference into the current corporate plan that my department is working on.
I wish to thank Crawford Fund and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for sponsoring my participation and hope that more scholars from PNG Agriculture Sector attend its programs in the future to enhance our understanding and share ideas to continue to advance Agriculture in the Pacific.
Finally, my mentor was very supportive throughout the 3-day program and I am grateful!
Theresa Wambon-Kambuy, Department of Agriculture & Livestock, Papua New Guinea
Mentor: Maddison Clonan
I was nominated by my country mentor, Mrs Regina Nukundj as the nextgen women in agriculture to attend The Crawford Fund Annual Conference for 2022. I at first did not have any idea about the event and its activities, all I thought was this would be a great opportunity to connect with people who may share the same experiences which I may learn from to better facilitate and coordinate current rural farm programs and also find opportunities to expand my work interest in research extension.
My focus coming here was to bring back with me all the necessary information from the Crawford Fund speakers, mentors and other scholars to improve my area of work. To my surprise even before leaving Papua New Guinea, I received an email from another scholar in the area of Biogas which is currently a program in the section I am also in, yet has not developed due to less research and extension done. I believe that’s when, I realized the importance of the conference “Networking”.
As I shared my work and experiences and learned from other scholars in the group activities organised by the RAID team, I noticed the keen interest and supportive comments from facilitators and mentors would give as encouragement and ideas to enhance individual capacity and work in research and extension. I was very impressed at all the quest speakers, panel speakers and moderators in all the sessions attended. The one thing that amazed me is that I was given that great opportunity to connect with very senior, high level experienced speakers and invitees who shared and networked together humbly at their lowest to get their key messages across to scholars like myself who only have a degree.
I have been currently assisting rural farmers adopt new methods of planting of our local food crops from simple seed multiplication and nursery to adapting climate smart agriculture practices for sustainable climate resilience agriculture and this conference has intensely strengthened and motivated me to continue my journey to change the mindset of rural people and make a paradigm shift in agriculture whilst still applying traditional and local concepts where applicable.
I thank my mentor Ms Maddison Clonan for her high instincts in recognizing my areas of interest and assisting to introduce valuable speakers to me. I also have been inspired by the Chair, Hon John Anderson as a farmer yet having a very high profound background work experience; Dr Madaline Healey, Dr Anika Molesworth and Dr Alison Bentley for sharing such useful experiences from their research and extension work; and also Dr David McGill for sharing those very impressive yet useful graphs and diagrams on how community extension work was done on the ground for impact and continuity of the project.
I look forward to sharing my work with other institutions connected to the Crawford Fund and hope my work in the area of extension will enable me through the fund to also further my studies in the area of sustainable agriculture. Thank you, Crawford Fund and RAID team for giving me this opportunity and I look forward to other opportunities also available in the Master Classes. Awesome stuff!!
