ABSTRACT
Subsistence food production continues to provide much of the food consumed in Papua New Guinea (PNG), West Papua, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It is a moderately important source of food in New Caledonia and a very minor source in the Torres Strait Islands. I have spent my professional life working on food production and village agriculture in PNG and there is much more published information from PNG than the other Melanesian political units. Hence, this chapter has a greater focus on PNG. I have also studied food production in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and conducted fieldwork on many islands there. So, I can write with some authority on these two nations. I have less experience in New Caledonia and even less in West Papua and Torres Strait Islands, and this is reflected in the chapter.
