The role of agriculture in the development process in the Pacific

ABSTRACT

The need for agriculture to contribute to economic development in the Pacific is greatest in Melanesia, given rapid population growth and limited emigration options compared with those available to the Polynesian countries. The non-agricultural sector in Melanesia has not grown fast enough to enable rapid labour transfer out of agriculture. With high labour costs and remoteness from world markets the main internationally competitive export industries exploit non-renewable resources or use unsustainably high extraction rates for renewable resources such as forests. These activities fund imports and government revenue but generate little employment. Given this limited structural transformation, the major role of agriculture is in providing food and livelihoods for most households. Policy interventions are not always helpful because of confusion between food security and self-sufficiency and due to data weaknesses. Whether indigenous farming systems can continue to adapt to rising food demand fuelled by rapid population growth remains an open question.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural development
• Food policy
• structural change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This reflects a far larger Polynesian diaspora, allowing possibility of family reunification migration, and is also due to concessional schemes such as the Samoan Quota and Pacific Access Category. Once migrants gain New Zealand citizenship they have access to live and work in Australia under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, creating de facto preferences. So even with the proximity of Australia to Melanesia and the former colonial ties, there are also far more Polynesian than Melanesian emigrants in Australia, mirroring the situation in New Zealand: https://devpolicy.org/pacific-islanders-in-australia-where-are-the-melanesians-20140828/.

2 Moreover much logging in Melanesia is sea-based (due to limited roads) and harms reef and lagoon resources and inshore fisheries, which are important food sources for the coastal poor (Gibson, 2018).

3 It is an open question as to how much useful knowledge is transferred from working in horticulture in these two countries. While high altitude parts of Melanesia can be cold enough to grow some of the temperate crops that New Zealand specializes in, limited photoperiod variation hampers fruiting. Introduced vegetables such as cabbages and pumpkins have had more success. Likewise, the transfer of livestock farming technologies has been largely unsuccessful, with aid-driven village cattle projects in the 1970s and sheep projects in the 1990s failing. There has been more success with small livestock, such as poultry.

4 Transactions costs on remittances to the Pacific remain high despite more than a decade of policy attention, including aid agencies in Australia and New Zealand funding a cost comparisons site (sendmoneypacific.org) and supporting financial literacy interventions to help remitters choose lower cost providers. Moreover, many of the islands lack banking facilities, forcing reliance on in-person and other informal transfers.