disasters and agriculture in the pacific islands - Pacific Disaster Net

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PREFACEThe Pacific island region is highly prone to natural disasters,especially cyclones, droughts and volcanic eruptions. Theseimpose a heavy economic toll, diverting resources away fromall forms of development. In a region so dependent onagriculture as the Pacific Islands, reducing exposure to andmitigating against the effects of natural disasters offersimmediate and substantial benefits to the sustainabledevelopment of the region.This report provides a detailed account of the interrelationshipsbetween disasters and agricultural systems infour Pacific island countries: Fiji, Samoa< Tuvalu andVanuatu. The authors note that traditional agriculturalsystems provided a high degree of food security. Althoughthey have significantly changed over recent decades, manycomponents of these systems remain in place, to varyingdegrees around the region. This continues to be an importantmitigating force against the impact of disasters, as recentevents in Samoa and Vanuatu have shown. The report arguesthat the impact of natural disasters on agriculture can beconsiderably reduced, first by better environmentalmanagement and, second, by finding ways to use traditionalfarming methods and adapt them to new uses, rather than thewhole scale change to farming methods that has often beenattempted in recent decades.This report is one in the series of reports commissioned bythe South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme. Thepurpose behind these reports has been to increase awarenessof the importance of disaster reduction for sustainabledevelopment in the Pacific region, and to demonstrate thatthere are practical ways to reduce the exposure of islandeconomies and communities to natural hazards. The 1990swere designated by the United Nations General Assembly tobe the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.Reduction of disaster risks remains a priority for the UnitedNations system and for the South Pacific Applied GeoscienceCommission (SOPAC), the regional organization which isnow implementing the South Pacific Disaster ReductionProgramme.
The Pacific island region is a region of greatdiversity, in the size of the countries, theirpopulations, resource endowments, theimportance of agriculture, and environmentalconditions. In almost all Pacific islandcountries, agriculture is an important, if not themost important, sector. The region's generallybenign climate is punctuated by climaticextremes in the form of cyclones, floods and,more insidiously, droughts. These extremes ofclimate have far-reaching effects on land-usepatterns and serious environmentalconsequences that require proper land useplanning and watershed management.This report comprises case studies of theimpacts of disaster on agriculture, from fourcountries that are broadly representative of therange of physical and economic conditions inthe region. Two case studies were selected fromthe large countries of Melanesia: Vanuatu andthe Province of Kadavu in Fiji. The archipelagothat comprises Vanuatu is one of the mostcyclone prone areas in the Pacific yet, of all theisland countries, Vanuatu is the most dependenton agriculture. Traditional disaster mitigationpractices, together with the concerted nationalprogramme to encourage self-sufficiency, offerimportant lessons for the whole region.Kadavu, Fiji's southern-most province isrelatively typical of Fiji's outer islands in that inrecent years its population has declined and itsagriculture has been considerably diversifiedand commercialised. As well as its highvulnerability to cyclones, Kadavu faces anenvironmental disaster, brought about by acombination of uncontrolled pigs,indiscriminate burning, and unsustainablecropping. Samoa, a typical Polynesianeconomy, was selected as a case study becauseapart from two severe cyclones this decade,Samoa provides a striking example of theincursion of a plant-borne disaster-taro blight,which destroyed the country's principal exportand staple food. Samoa's economy has neverthelessperformed better than any other in theregion. Samoa thereby illustrates both thevulnerability of Pacific island economies tonatural disasters and their resiliency to them.Atolls provide one of the harshest and mostvulnerable environments on earth foragriculture. Tuvalu, an atoll state, provides thefourth case study for several reasons. This tinyindependent country has experienced severalsevere cyclones over the last decade or so andhas been at the forefront of the internationalcampaign to highlight the plight of small islandstates in the face of sea level rise.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPacific island societies evolved crops anddeveloped cropping systems and other means tocope quite effectively with natural disasters.Although they have significantly changed overrecent decades, many components of thesesystems remain in place, to varying degreesaround the region. This continues to be animportant mitigating force against the impact ofdisasters, as the Vanuatu and Samoa casestudies show. The food security system inSamoan villages has proved remarkably robust,even though Samoan villages have a steadyinflow of remittances at times of need. Samoa'scapacity to quickly readjust after a series ofcatastrophic disasters in the early 1990s istestimony to the hidden strength that lies withthe traditional food production system. InVanuatu, as well, there is much to learn fromtraditional farming methods, such as plantingtimetables in determining strategic schedulesfor cash crops, and sequential harvestingtechniques. Food preservation, which wascentral to traditional disaster mitigation inVanuatu, offers modern income opportunities.There is good scope for adopting 'nontraditional'food preservation methods not onlyto provide for times of disaster but also to adddietary variety, create household incomeopportunities, and save household income.In theory, economic development should reducevulnerability to natural disasters. But ifincreased household income is accompanied bydecreased food security, then vulnerability todisaster increases, as the Kadavu studydemonstrates. An agriculturally affluentcommunity, Kadavu maintains a strong subsistencebase and can produce highlyremunerative cash crops. The core of theisland's traditional food security was yam, adisaster-resistant crop especially when plantedin the traditional manner. Now people dependheavily on a single non-food crop, yaqona,which is susceptible to cyclone damage. Cropsthat provided food security at times of disasterare now rarely planted.Agricultural development in Pacific islandcountries has brought with it some degree ofenvironmental degradation, and therebyincreased vulnerability to disasters. This isevident in Fiji where cash cropping of gingerand sugar has extended to steep sloping landwithout any soil conservation efforts. In recentdecades, communities throughout the regionhave become increasingly dependent ongovernment for food relief after cyclones. Theyhave become more vulnerable to disastersbecause of their increasing(vii)
Page 1: DISASTERS ANDISBN: 982-364-006-8AGR
Page 5 and 6: List of MapsMap1 The Region........
Page 7: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSNumerous people con
Page 11 and 12: 1. DISASTERS AND PACIFIC ISLAND AGR
Page 13 and 14: American Samoa Unincorporated US 24
Page 17 and 18: CyclonesCyclones are the most promi
Page 19 and 20: to the drought but exact numbers we
Page 21 and 22: holdings in the “renovation” of
Page 23: 2. DISASTERS AND AGRICULTURE IN POL
Page 26 and 27: that Samoans maintained subsistence
Page 28 and 29: copra and husked nuts at this price
Page 30 and 31: place, i.e. taro at about 6-7 month
Page 32 and 33: cocoa 35 . Only 2 tonnes of dried c
Page 34 and 35: the country lost its main food and
Page 36 and 37: A major export industry that was ge
Page 38 and 39: 4. 5.
Page 40 and 41: Table 10: Kadavu land-use and farm
Page 42 and 43: Table 12: Kadavu Copra Production:
Page 44 and 45: there had been a more adequate and
Page 46 and 47: \the soil and vegetation complex, c
Page 51 and 52: Together, this has limited the scop
Page 53 and 54: household, calculated to be one mon
Page 55 and 56: Table 15 ... continuedCyclone Date
Page 57: Table 19: Projected short-fall in t
Page 61 and 62:
production of 35 to 50 percent 78 a
Page 63 and 64:
Subsistence crops in the form of co
Page 65 and 66:
food garden (in their first second
Page 67 and 68:
eappear to fruit within six months.
Page 69 and 70:
Cattle-rearing is perhaps the most
Page 71 and 72:
Table 22: Damage Caused by Cyclone
Page 73 and 74:
Table 23: Cyclones, copra, and econ
Page 75 and 76:
)Samoa. Sufficient knowledge and pr
Page 77 and 78:
Fergus, the NDMO made the unprecede
Page 79 and 80:
5. DISASTERS AND AGRICULTURE ON ATO
Page 81 and 82:
THE GEOGRAPHY OF TUVALU: ASUMMARYc)
Page 83 and 84:
Table 27: The coconut and its uses
Page 85 and 86:
Funafuti, Nukufetau and Nanumea, su
Page 87 and 88:
than 500 tops per person which undo
Page 89:
ecause of the high, brackish water
Page 92 and 93:
marked disparities, with no rationa
Page 94 and 95:
Table 29: The susceptibility of Pac
Page 96 and 97:
Table 30: The susceptibility of Pac
Page 98 and 99:
No major pest orSugar The crop, nat
Page 100 and 101:
Planners' targets were unrealistica
Page 102 and 103:
THE COST OF DISASTERS TO THEAGRICUL
Page 104 and 105:
Table 34: Results of regressions to
Page 106 and 107:
a more ill-conceived crop choice ba
Page 108 and 109:
equivalent to about 11 per cent of
Page 111 and 112:
7. RECOMMENDATIONS ON COST-EFFECTIV
Page 113 and 114:
approximately equivalent to that of
Page 115 and 116:
Table 39: An indicative budget for
Page 117 and 118:
impacts are often correlated with,
Page 119 and 120:
Hazard information needs to incorpo
Page 121 and 122:
cost- effective to invest several m
Page 123:
with adequate resources for its rap
Page 126 and 127:
costs where the steeplands meet the
Page 128:
Development Bank, Manila.Twyford 1.
show all

disasters and agriculture in the pacific islands - Pacific Disaster Net

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?