The national Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) is the lead government agency responsible for the management of the agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea. Its mandate is to provide policy advice and technical and administrative support for optimal performance of the sector. These include;

- contributing strategic leadership and direction to the sector,
- coordinating and monitoring national agricultural development programs,
- providing advice that leads to an environment that facilitates investment and supports new initiatives,
- facilitating and supporting effective partnerships between stakeholders, and
- enhancing systems and delivery mechanisms for capacity building (extension, training, information)

Goals and Objectives

As PNG Government’s premier policy making and implementing agency, DAL aims to promote improvement and expansion of food crops and livestock programmes and projects in a bid to assist the people of PNG meet their local requirements in nutrition and household food security. The department also strives to promote innovative strategies aimed at increasing food production for both local and global markets. Its specific objectives are:

- To expand and improve the production of food crops and livestock in order to assist in meeting local nutritional requirements as well as ensuring household food security;
- To ensure that the people in rural and less developed areas have the opportunity to participate in the cash economy with opportunities for self-employment among the people in order to minimize urban migration;
- To support the expansion and diversification of export and import replacement commodities with a broader, stronger and sustainable productive base;
- To encourage the private commercial sector to play a greater role in agricultural developments;
- To ensure the highest possible standards of agricultural research, plant and animal health and quality of produce;
- To ensure human resources of the sub-sectors are adequately developed to meet changing economic and social situations;
- To ensure that agriculture production is accelerated, increased and improved with minimum adverse effects on the environment to contribute more to the Gross Domestic Product; and
- To improve the delivery of services by restructuring and strengthening the institutional arrangements to include corporatization and privatization.