For the past three years, a small but dedicated team within The University of Queensland's School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability has been quietly doing something extraordinary. Through 26 short courses, more than 550 participants from 28 countries, and over 1,500 hours of facilitated learning, the Food Systems Transformation Hub has been transforming how agricultural professionals, government officers, and development practitioners across the Indo-Pacific think, lead, and act.
Their methodology is distinctive. At the heart of every program is systems thinking, an approach that encourages participants to move beyond isolated problems and see the interconnected relationships between farms, markets, policies, communities, and ecosystems. For agricultural professionals working in complex, resource-constrained environments, this reframe can be profound.
"Our mission is not simply to transfer knowledge," said Professor Ammar Abdul Aziz, who leads the Hub alongside Dr Julius Kotir, Dr Md Ali Akber, Dr Adhitya Kiloes, and Dr Julia Checco. "It is to transform how people see the systems they work within, and to give them the tools and confidence to drive change from wherever they sit. When you change how someone thinks, you change what is possible for their communities, their institutions, and their country."
Beyond their impact on participants, the Hub's programs also create meaningful opportunities for the next generation of researchers. UQ PhD students contribute to program delivery as facilitators, gaining hands-on exposure to international development contexts, Indo-Pacific agricultural systems, and diverse professional networks, experience that extends well beyond a traditional PhD pathway and strengthens both the program and their own development as future academic and development leaders.
The Hub's most recent program brought that mission into sharp focus. Last month, 18 Papua New Guinea professionals, 14 women and 4 men working across agriculture, biosecurity, food safety, research, and extension services, travelled to Queensland as part of the Australia Awards PNG Agriculture Short Course. The five-day study tour was the culminating component of an eight-course program delivered across two years, six components in PNG and two in Australia, and brought together participants who had already completed earlier in-country training focused on systems thinking, food security, business development, and agricultural value chains.
Over five days across South East Queensland, participants visited a mix of Queensland agricultural producers, food supply-chain businesses, and University of Queensland research facilities spanning farming, food science, and animal/plant research. At each stop, the question was the same: what can PNG learn from this, and how do we make it work at home?
The answers were rarely simple. But they were always rich.
At Native Oz Bushfoods, participants left with a reframe that will travel back to PNG with them: when you see plants, see a supermarket. When you see plants, see a pharmacy. At QAAFI, Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa, Centre Director for the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, introduced participants to the extraordinary nutritional potential of underutilised traditional plant foods and the importance of protecting indigenous intellectual property. At the UQ Gatton Dairy Unit, ongoing research into reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock showed participants that productivity and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive. And at Big Orange, a fresh produce retailer specialising in cosmetically imperfect produce, participants explored how a community business model rooted in trust could work in PNG villages.
But perhaps the most striking outcomes were personal. One participant received multiple job offers after completing the earlier components, attributing the shift to the analytical thinking and communication confidence built through the Hub's facilitation approach. Another is already embedding systems thinking into their university's agriculture curriculum, extending the Hub's reach to a future generation of PNG practitioners.
The participants describe that change in their own words. "We have gained a lot, and it has surpassed our expectations," said Regina Varaosi of the National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA), the cohort leader. "It has been both professionally enriching and personally transformative. It has changed the way we think and approach problems back home. We didn't just gain knowledge, we changed our mindset."
For some, it reshaped their ambitions. "The training has inspired me to keep applying systems thinking," said Marilyn Apa of the PNG Biosecurity Authority. "I identified areas in my career where problems require a systems approach, and that has pushed me to think about going further and doing a PhD." For others, it built leadership confidence: Goru Gaina Babona of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock has been recently promoted to lead the southern region. "These weeks have set us up to become systems thinkers," he said, "to take a bird's-eye view of a situation and address it."
It was a transformation Professor Sagadeevan Mundree, Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, named directly at the closing ceremony held at UQ City Campus. "You have been transformed," he told the cohort. "Shoot for the moon. Even if you don't get to the moon, you'll become one of the stars."
The program concluded with participants presenting workplace projects covering key issues in PNG, from strengthening their national seed policy and cocoa quality standards, to managing invasive species, developing biosecurity resilience, and commercialising indigenous foods, with systems thinking at the heart of every proposal. Certificates were awarded by Professor Mundree alongside co-project leads Professor Ammar Abdul Aziz and Dr Julius Kotir.
For the Food Systems Transformation Hub, this program is one chapter in a much longer story. Across 26 short courses and counting, the team continues to demonstrate that the most powerful investment in food security is not infrastructure or technology alone. It is people who think differently, lead confidently, and act with purpose.
"Don't forget that you've got many more runs on the board than many other parts of the world," Professor Abdul Aziz told participants. "You have such an abundance. How can we now turn that into value addition, into market opportunities that actually start to give you economic strength?"
It is a question PNG's next generation of agricultural leaders is now well equipped to answer.
The program would not have been possible without the generosity and commitment of the host organisations and partners who opened their doors, shared their expertise, and welcomed the cohort so warmly. The Food Systems Transformation Hub extends its sincere thanks to Mulgowie Farming Company, Withcott Seedlings, Native Oz Bushfoods, Bare Essentials Farm, Big Orange, Brisbane Markets, Murray Brothers, Australian Country Choice Abattoir, the Queensland Animal Science Precinct, the Australian Plant Phenomics Network, and QAAFI's Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences. The Hub also warmly acknowledges the contributions of UQ School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability staff who supported program delivery, as well as QAAFI colleagues, whose expertise and generosity enriched the experience. Thanks also to UQ International Development (UQID), whose partnership and support was instrumental in making the program a success, and to the Australian Government through the Australia Awards program for funding this important work across the Pacific.
The Australia Awards PNG Agriculture Short Course is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and delivered by The University of Queensland's Food Systems Transformation Hub within the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, in partnership with UQ International Development.
