Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Poverty & SDGs

SOUTH PACIFIC: Food Crisis, An Opportunity For Change?

Shailendra Singh

SUVA, Jun 11 2008 (IPS) - Pacific Island governments should not view the global food crisis as a threat but as an opportunity to boost their neglected agricultural sectors, says a professor in development economics.

University of the South Pacific academic Biman Prasad says worldwide food shortages and the resulting soaring prices should serve as an impetus for greater investment in agriculture.

“There is a great potential for agriculture provided the support is there to develop better infrastructure and marketing facilities to boost production and exports,” Prasad told IPS. “This will help raise rural incomes, contribute to food security and boost exports as well.”

While some countries on atolls – with limited land, water and poor soils – cannot grow much beyond breadfruit, taro and coconuts, Prasad said that the bigger volcanic countries with rich soils and ample water have real potential in agriculture.

Prasad’s comments came amid growing concerns across the region about the impact of escalating food prices – estimated to be at 30-year highs. The price of staples like wheat and rice has doubled in the past year, worrying many Pacific Island leaders.

The situation has been compounded by the record increase in oil prices. It has placed the small island states in the region in an extremely vulnerable position as food and oil make up the bulk of their imports.

“Fiji is in the same position as other Pacific Island States in that our production levels are so small that we are incapable of dominating any international trading scenario,” Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told world leaders at the World Food Summit in Rome.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community issued a statement outlining the challenges faced by the region at the World Food Summit in Rome recently. It said that over the past few decades, Pacific Islanders had become increasingly reliant on imported staples such as rice, flour and noodles, and were thus vulnerable to global price increases. Transport costs associated with importing produce represented a significant proportion of input costs in the Pacific given the distance of most Pacific Islands from major markets, according to the statement.

A recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) report predicted that an additional five percent of people in the Pacific, or some 50,000 people, would slip into poverty because of the high prices.

According to Prasad, the 50,000 figure was rather conservative. He said that in Fiji alone, over 28 percent of the population of 850,000 was estimated to be living in poverty in 2005 – well before the global food crisis struck. A further 30 percent of the population was considered to be at risk of poverty.

“Fiji is the most developed country in this region, which has been generally depressed in recent years,” said Prasad. “Unless Pacific Island governments take action through prudent policy decisions to address this issue, a significant number of people across the region will be pushed into poverty.”

In nations such as Fiji with large tourism sectors, much of the fruits and vegetables were imported when they could be grown locally or at least substituted by local varieties for this market, Prasad said. “With soaring food prices in Australia and New Zealand, countries such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – and to a lesser extent Samoa and Tonga – can grow fruits, vegetables, rice, sugar, ginger, taro and tapioca for export to these countries,” Prasad explained.

The priority, added Prasad, should be to create sustainable agricultural production based on an export strategy by identifying those commodities in which Pacific Island countries have a comparative advantage. “This would be a sensible approach. Only this will guarantee sustainability,” he stressed.

Domestic development banks and international agencies such as the ADB should now focus assistance on agriculture in the region, Prasad added. “Agriculture-led exports should be the focus for reviving the economy. Food production can boost both domestic consumption and exports if there is surplus production.”

Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji’s interim finance minister, also called on the ADB to provide greater focus to agricultural and rural based development in the region.

Addressing the ADB’s constituency group meeting in Madrid, recently, Chaudhry said that while the areas identified in the ADB’s long-term strategic framework strategy were relevant to the development goals of the region, the challenge for developing countries lay in containing inflation fuelled by sharp increases in global food prices and the high price of oil.

“Food security must now take centre stage in the development goals of all developing nations. The bank should, therefore, provide the necessary assistance to its member countries to meet this huge humanitarian challenge both in the short and the long term,” he said.

In urging a greater focus on agriculture, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, said that while significant increases in agricultural production were unlikely in the short term, reductions in import duties and targeted transfers would be necessary to prevent price increases.

In the longer term, Pacific Island governments and donors need to reverse the declining investment in agriculture and recognise the role it plays in safeguarding food security. If nothing, the food crisis has given the region a newfound appreciation of its agricultural produce and the follies of relying on the once easier option of imports.

Reliance on imported food has led to a deterioration in the diets of Pacific Islanders, with rates of obesity and diabetes among the highest in the world.

“For too long our children have been fed on rice as staple food because of the convenience of preparation and storage,” said President Manny Mori of the Federated States of Micronesia in a recent statement. “We have neglected our responsibility and even contributed to their lower health standards by failing to teach them to appreciate the natural food and bounty of our islands.”