Mike Bourke, BAgrSci (Qld), MAg (PNG), PhD (ANU)
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Department of Human Geography

Email: mike.bourke@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

I have been engaged in research and development activity in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu for the past 38 years. Five books have been edited or written in the past seven years to capture this experience, with a further two books in press, and another one planned.

Research Interests

Village agriculture in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; relationship between environment, crops and people; intensification of land use; sustainability of agriculture; responses to food shortages; rural poverty; rural development, root crop agronomy.

Key Publications

• (with L.W. Hanson, B.J. Allen and T.J. McCarthy) Papua New Guinea Rural Development Handbook, The Australian National University, Canberra, 326pp, 2001.
• (ed. with M.G. Allen and J.G. Salisbury) Food Security for Papua New Guinea. Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference. ACIAR Proceedings No. 99. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, 2001.
• (with C. Camarotto, E.J. D'Souza, K. Nema, T.N. Tarepe and S. Woodhouse) Production Patterns for 180 Economic Crops in Papua New Guinea. Coombs Academic Publishing, The Australian National University, Canberra, 213pp, 2004.
• (ed. with C. Ballard, P. Brown and T. Harwood) The Sweet Potato in Oceania: A Reappraisal. Ethnology Monographs 19, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburghand Oceania Monograph 56, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2005.
• (with A. McGregor, M.G. Allen, B.R. Evans, B.F. Mullen, A.A. Pollard, M. Wairiu and S. Zotalis)Solomon Islands Smallholder Agriculture Study. Volume 1. Rural Livelihoods Strategy. AusAID, Canberra, 2006.
• (with M.G. Allen, B.R. Evans, E. Iramu, R.K. Maemouri, B.F. Mullen, A.A. Pollard, M. Wairiu, C. Watoto, and S. Zotalis, Solomon Islands Smallholder Agriculture Study, Volume 4, Provincial Reports, AusAID, Canberra, 2006.
• 'Recent research on sweet potato and cassava in Papua New Guinea', in S.L. Tan (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Sweet Potato and Cassava: Innovative Technologies for Commercialization, Acta Horticulturae 703, ISHS, 241–246, 2006.
• (with B. Allen) 'Can rural development alleviate poverty in Papua New Guinea?', Development Bulletin 72, 30–35, 2007.
• 'Managing the species composition of fallows in Papua New Guinea by planting trees', in M.F. Cairns (ed.), Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming,Resources for the Future Press, Washington, DC, 379–88, 2007.

Career Highlights

Agronomist, PNG Department of Primary Industry (1970-77); Principal Research Horticulturalist, PNG Department of Primary Industry (1978-83); Postgraduate Student, ANU (1983-88); Visiting Fellow (and later Adjunct Senior Fellow), Department of Human Geography, ANU (1989-2008); Self-employed Consultant (1988-2008).