Agriculture


“For generations we relied on our land to provide us with sufficient food to meet our needs. Lifestyle changes, a desire for convenience and a world of cheap imports has eroded this to a certain extent. The current rise in food prices does not come without its costs but it also provides Pacific Island Countries and Territories with the opportunity to recognize the importance of our own domestic agricultural sectors and give them the priority they deserve. In doing so we will better equip our countries with the ability to handle current and future external shocks, whilst at the same time contribute to improving the health of our people.” SPC at the Summit on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy [12]


As the landscapes in the Pacific Islands have changed and become increasingly urbanized, there has been a tendency for increased reliance on imported foods. For instance, currently 90% of the beef, 67% of fresh vegetables, and 65% of fresh fruits consumed in Hawaii are imported [16].  For most of the islands, commercial agriculture is limited to copra, bananas, and a few specialty crops, such as betel nut and kava [14].  The agricultural contribution to GDP can range widely among the islands: the Federated States of Micronesia is 50%, the Marshall Islands is 14%, and Palau is 0.5% [11].  In Hawaii, sugar and pineapple were produced for a century in large plantations, but the state also produces bananas, tropical fruit, coffee, macadamia nuts, and flowers commercially.  Hawaii’s plantation agriculture has steadily declined since 1994, with sugarcane acreage decreasing from 229,611 acres in 1972 to 42,080 in 2006 [10]. 

Drought has severe impacts on livestock as well as crops. Lack of rainfall reduces the availability of forage plants for cattle grazing.  During a severe drought, the herd may be culled to ensure that the remaining cattle stock survives during the drought.  Once the drought is over, the plants take time to recover and this leads to a lag time in recovery to livestock herds.  During a drought year, breeding cows decrease by twenty percent and calving decreases by ten percent.  Following the drought, it takes about 2.5 years to recover from the impacts to the herds.  Some estimates indicate a 50% reduction in production for cattle ranches, which approximate a decrease in revenue for ranches in the State of Hawaii of about $4 million annually through the drought and for the 2.5 years following the drought while herds are rebuilt.  Indirect costs from being unable to replace equipment, such as vehicles, during drought years compound the direct revenue losses and can extend recovery periods by three or four more years [7].


Several changes in the last century have affected agricultural production throughout the Pacific, including globalization impact on markets, advanced transportation systems, and impacts from extreme climate events; these combined changes increase vulnerability of agricultural systems and food security to impacts of climate change.  Increased shipping practices and global markets have provided a means to export crops efficiently and to import agricultural products produced in other places.  Following tropical storm disasters, shipping enabled food relief assistance to reach the islands, and this began to alter food preferences for imported goods [2, 3].  In order to deal with the changes in climate and expected impacts on food security, islands have the opportunity to return to production of food crops that may be more resilient in island environments.  The integrated land management practices used in the past throughout the Pacific provide an important framework for sustainable agricultural practices in the present [8, 9], with relevance for both subsistence farming practices and diversified, commercial agriculture using watershed management practices.

Thi woman from Emau Island in Vanuatu is sorting island cabbage leaves she has just harvested. Source: Christopher Bartlett


The impacts of climate change would affect agricultural activity in several significant capacities: 

  • Sea level rise would decrease the land area available for farming [6];

  • Sea level rise and variation increase salinity of groundwater resources, threatening the availability of drinking water and food security [8];

  • Extended periods of drought, causing negative impacts to crops and livestock and threatening food security [6, 16];

  • Increased threats of wildland fires associated with extreme seasonal to interannual dry seasons and droughts;

  • Extended periods of drought and flooding resulting in soil degradation [20];

  • The potential increased intensity of typhoons would result in significant damage to infrastructure, such as crop and water storage facilities, irrigation systems, and roadways, to heavy equipment, and to low-lying crop areas. 

  • Increased temperatures coupled decreased rainfall leading to additional need for freshwater resources and irrigation for crops [20] ;

  • Increased competition for freshwater and potentially more legal battles over water rights (already an issue in many islands such as Oahu and Maui) [21].

  
Taro gardem in Hanalei, Kaua’i.

 

The Ahupua'a, an example of integrated land management, is a traditional Hawaiian land division system which contains wedge-shaped land sections that extend from the mountain to the sea. The Ahupua'a supports a self-containing community to live in harmony with the ecological system to sustain the natural resources while meeting the needs of the community. Amidst a belief system that emphasized the interrelationship of elements and beings, the ahupua`a contained those interrelationships in the activities of daily and seasonal life [22].


Sustainable agricultural practices can address the issues associated with climate change.  Most of the islands have begun to pursue the following measures to address potential issues of food security, related to stress on the agricultural systems, which will be exacerbated by climate change. 

  • Hawaii State has developed a Hawaii Drought Mitigation Plan and each county has developed County Drought Mitigation Plans that guide activities and support projects for drought risk reduction, primarily in the agricultural sectors (see the CWR Hawaii Drought website);

  • Local level projects have been initiated increase awareness on the importance of diversification and to support farmers who diversify crops [5, 11, 17];

  • “Buy Local” public awareness campaigns have emerged in Hawaii and elsewhere to decrease reliance on imported foods and support local farming and gardening practices [18];

  • Enhancing agricultural infrastructure and conversion of sugar cane plants to biofuel facilities has been promoted to decrease dependency on imported fuels, which are also required in large-scale agricultural production and transportation, to improve availability of clean energy, and to increase livelihood sustainability for agriculture  [19]; As an example, with the “Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative,” there has been renewed interest in the remaining plantations for conversion to biofuel production in Hawaii.

  • Land fragmentation in smaller atolls helps to ensure that not all crops will be similarly affected by storms, fires, and saltwater [20];

  • Food preservation and storage techniques  [2,3];

  • Home gardening and planting food-trees to increase household resilience [5, 4];

  • Drought monitoring and making changes to the production cycles and culling livestock herds based on climate forecasts [16; Hawaii Drought Monitor and PEAC websites]

  • Research for producing drought and saltwater-resistant taro and other crops [5].

  • Diversification into non-farm activities [19];

  • Crop insurance and micro-credit schemes [20];

  • Improve water infiltration systems [19];

  • Provide shade to protect crops [19];

  • Afforestation to condition soils [19].  

The vulnerability of women in agricultural economies is affected by their relative insecurity of access and rights over resources and sources of wealth such as agricultural land. It is well established that women are disadvantaged in terms of property rights and security of tenure, though the mechanisms and exact form of the insecurity are contested (Agarwal, 2003; Jackson, 2003). This insecurity can have implications both for their vulnerability in a changing climate, and also their capacity to adapt productive livelihoods to a changing climate. [1 (Box 17.5)]  To address these types of vulnerabilities in the Pacific, SPC’s Development for Sustainable Agriculture Programme (DSAP) used participatory approaches that emphasized gender analysis, and worked to enhance food security and build agricultural capacity with the men or women who work primarily with specific crops.  DSAP has been successfully implemented in 17 Pacific Island Countries, including Palau, Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and received a gender award for ensuring that projects met the needs of women, men, youth, and the overall community in the villages [5].

References


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