Whichever party wins government next year, needs to make economic development of the country the key priority. We know the HRPP’s largely successful Samoan Development Strategies (SDS ) have worked wonders for the economic transformation of the country in the past decade. However, there is more to be done. Especially in the still stagnant agricultural sector.
Tautua party spokesman, Palusalue Faapo II, has revealed that his party will likely concentrate on the development of the agricultural sector (Samoa Observer, 22 September 2010) if it wins the March 2011 election. This is the one major area of the economy that the HRPP has struggled to gain any meaningful success in.
The Eternal Problems the Agricultural Sector Faces
Ever since then, the government has been trying through various means and aid programmes to develop blight-resistant taro crops. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) have poured enormous time and energy into research and development, in conjunction with other pacific countries, towards developing a taro that meets the high quarantine standards of the likes of New Zealand and Australia (the key export markets in the region).
A break-through shipment traveled to New Zealand in July this year. It got through New Zealand customs and presumably entered Auckland’s shopping centre shelves. However, a second shipment has hit the rocks. The Samoa Observer reported that the issue appeared to be the lack of consistent quality. In the latest news, the MAF chief-executive, Asuao Pouono, appears to have paid for this with his job. His three-year term is not being renewed.
Who is to blame for the lack of growth in the agricultural sector? The anti-HRPP crowd will no doubt blame Prime Minister Tuilaepa and his government. The usual war-cry is that the HRPP have done nothing for the agricultural sector since the cyclones of the early 1990s. It is fair to raise questions of the government as to why there has been no growth in the agricultural sector. However, the reality is that the government has actually been trying quite hard to do something about it.
Firstly, it is not the government's fault that most of the country's agricultural land was wiped out by the cyclones in the early 1990s. It essentially took until 2000 for the country to recover. In that time, whilst Samoa recovered from the disasters, Fiji and other countries took advantage and stole our markets. They improved their agricultural technology to develop superior forms of export crops and grow them at a consistently high standard of quality.
Secondly, the terms of trade essentially changed from under their feet. Quarantine standards in our usual trading partners (New Zealand, Australia, United States) are now much more stringent. Our historical trade partners massively increased their quarantine rules and heavily protect their own agricultural industries with subsidies and tariffs. This is in addition to the usual hurdle of high transport costs (Samoa is well out of the way of the main tshipping routes hence costs for export are very expensive). I doubt that the SNDP / SDUP or the Samoa party could have done any better.
Diversification and Potential Areas for Growth
Who is to blame for the lack of growth in the agricultural sector? The anti-HRPP crowd will no doubt blame Prime Minister Tuilaepa and his government. The usual war-cry is that the HRPP have done nothing for the agricultural sector since the cyclones of the early 1990s. It is fair to raise questions of the government as to why there has been no growth in the agricultural sector. However, the reality is that the government has actually been trying quite hard to do something about it.
Firstly, it is not the government's fault that most of the country's agricultural land was wiped out by the cyclones in the early 1990s. It essentially took until 2000 for the country to recover. In that time, whilst Samoa recovered from the disasters, Fiji and other countries took advantage and stole our markets. They improved their agricultural technology to develop superior forms of export crops and grow them at a consistently high standard of quality.
Secondly, the terms of trade essentially changed from under their feet. Quarantine standards in our usual trading partners (New Zealand, Australia, United States) are now much more stringent. Our historical trade partners massively increased their quarantine rules and heavily protect their own agricultural industries with subsidies and tariffs. This is in addition to the usual hurdle of high transport costs (Samoa is well out of the way of the main tshipping routes hence costs for export are very expensive). I doubt that the SNDP / SDUP or the Samoa party could have done any better.
Diversification and Potential Areas for Growth
In its corporate plan, MAF have also tried to diversify the agricultural sector so that the sector does not rely on taro exports alone. Diversification has had mixed success but there are signs of growth, especially in the areas of Nonu and Fruit & Vegetable farming.
The success of Nonu exports has been the main success story of diversification. However, Nonu (or Noni) occupies a very small niche on the international market because French Polynesia (with a billion dollars in French aid annually) can supply the world with lower costs of production.
The development of the fruit and vegetables sector has been a major MAF project for the currentSDS 2008-2012. The underlying aim of the Fruit and Vegetables (F&V) sector plan launched in July 2009, is to coordinate and promote the consistent quality of produce. That way they will be in a better position to find markets for Samoan fruits and vegetables and guarantee consistent income for farmers.
The plan involves the setting up of a central quality-control and grading centre, responsible for selling to domestic hotels & motels and, if they’re lucky, overseas markets. It will also be responsible for coordinating the income returns to F&V farmers. It is a national disgrace that the majority of Samoa’s hotels buy their fruits and vegetables from overseas. They say that the locally grown produce is not of a consistently high standard and there is not enough supply. In other words, our farmers have long ago given up commercial farming. The challenge to the farmers is to upskill their farm production to produce a consistently high quality supply of produce. This involves money and plenty of it. Money that Samoan farmers and potential farmers simply do not have.
The success of Nonu exports has been the main success story of diversification. However, Nonu (or Noni) occupies a very small niche on the international market because French Polynesia (with a billion dollars in French aid annually) can supply the world with lower costs of production.
The development of the fruit and vegetables sector has been a major MAF project for the current
The plan involves the setting up of a central quality-control and grading centre, responsible for selling to domestic hotels & motels and, if they’re lucky, overseas markets. It will also be responsible for coordinating the income returns to F&V farmers. It is a national disgrace that the majority of Samoa’s hotels buy their fruits and vegetables from overseas. They say that the locally grown produce is not of a consistently high standard and there is not enough supply. In other words, our farmers have long ago given up commercial farming. The challenge to the farmers is to upskill their farm production to produce a consistently high quality supply of produce. This involves money and plenty of it. Money that Samoan farmers and potential farmers simply do not have.
The plan seeks to address this problem through ‘innovative’ financial means to make commercial loans more easily available to farmers on customary lands. ‘Innovative’ financial solutions means something along the lines of using potential earnings from F&V production as security for loans. Their produce will be forwarded to the central quality-control centre and they will earn money from that centre if their produce is good enough to be sold. The challenge is there for farmers.
Will these New Plans Work?
The question is this: will farmers be willing to develop their lands to the grade necessary to produce and maintain a consistent supply of produce? In the past decade, the answer has been a resounding ‘no’. The reason is because they cannot guarantee a consistent income from putting so much effort into the land. They do not want the loan-risk of working their lands for such meagre returns.
This is where the government and its aid partners needs to find new ways to support commercial farmers to improve the quality of their soils and plantations. The Tautua party would be well advised to come up with some new and fresh ideas to meet this problem. Although the HRPP government has done well to negotiate for Samoa’s WTO membership (which will improve Samoa’s ability to find markets) and place emphasis on developing blight-resistant taro, the key problem is not really the lack of markets. The problem is the poor quality of Samoa ’s produce. The markets will come, if the quality is high enough.
To be blunt, the quality of the majority of Samoa’s agricultural commodities is terrible (nonu exports being the glaring exception). This is why we cannot compete on the world markets. On the other hand, farmers are quite correct to say that they do not have the capital to put into improving the quality of their lands. Many farmers have left farming altogether and gone to tourism because of this. Therefore, these new plans for the F&V, taro, and coconut (palm-oil) crops needs a whole lot of action.
Is foreign investment in our agricultural industry the answer to fuel these major plans? Any form of investment in our agricultural industry is a must; whether that be from domestic investors or from overseas. It might need to be an innovative solution. We have seen successful innovation in recent years in the tourism industry. The public-private partnership between the government, Aggie-Greys, and Virgin Blue in the remarkably successful Polynesian Blue airline. It has dramatically reduced fares and been responsible for the exponential growth in tourists to Samoa.
The future direction of Government Policy
Both the HRPP and the Tautua party should place a key part of their economic policy platform upon the stagnating agricultural industry. It is nice that the Tautua party has generally suggested that agriculture will be a major focus for them. It would be even nicer if they actually spelt out exactly how they are going to go about addressing the problems the agricultural sector faces. Until then, the only sound policy to rely on is the HRPP's 'slow and steady' approach. This approach relies on three pillars as far as I can see. (1) research and development into new disease-resistant crops. (2) finding new markets (joining WTO) and getting back into the old markets (meeting the quarantine standards of NZ and Australia), and (3) encouraging investors to invest in commercial agriculture; especially in the Fruit and Vegetable sector.
The question is this: Is this enough? Should there be more budget support for the improvement of quality? Can the country afford to invest so much money into commercial agriculture when it has become a very expensive technology-based industry? The Tautua party would do well to answer these questions in their agricultural policy.
The one bright spot for Samoa's agricultural sector is the continual growth in the tourism industry. It has expanded our domestic market for our own agricultural produce in ways that the taro exporters of the 1980s could only dream of. We can now sell our local produce to more of our own hotels and accomodation-providers because they are much more numerous now compared to the 1980s.
In my opinion, it is essential to this country’s economic future that Samoa has a successful and thriving commercial agricultural sector. The reason is that most of Samoa’s land is agricultural land (and most of that is still useful arable land). Most Samoans indulge in some form of 'farming' in one form or another. Every Samoan has a plantation to go to. We have all this land available to us yet we are not making use of it to earn money for ourselves and our families. Instead, we are leaving the country in droves and working to make first-world countries richer, when our land lies idle. This is the real failure of our independence and the promise of 1962.
Is foreign investment in our agricultural industry the answer to fuel these major plans? Any form of investment in our agricultural industry is a must; whether that be from domestic investors or from overseas. It might need to be an innovative solution. We have seen successful innovation in recent years in the tourism industry. The public-private partnership between the government, Aggie-Greys, and Virgin Blue in the remarkably successful Polynesian Blue airline. It has dramatically reduced fares and been responsible for the exponential growth in tourists to Samoa.
The future direction of Government Policy
Both the HRPP and the Tautua party should place a key part of their economic policy platform upon the stagnating agricultural industry. It is nice that the Tautua party has generally suggested that agriculture will be a major focus for them. It would be even nicer if they actually spelt out exactly how they are going to go about addressing the problems the agricultural sector faces. Until then, the only sound policy to rely on is the HRPP's 'slow and steady' approach. This approach relies on three pillars as far as I can see. (1) research and development into new disease-resistant crops. (2) finding new markets (joining WTO) and getting back into the old markets (meeting the quarantine standards of NZ and Australia), and (3) encouraging investors to invest in commercial agriculture; especially in the Fruit and Vegetable sector.
The question is this: Is this enough? Should there be more budget support for the improvement of quality? Can the country afford to invest so much money into commercial agriculture when it has become a very expensive technology-based industry? The Tautua party would do well to answer these questions in their agricultural policy.
The one bright spot for Samoa's agricultural sector is the continual growth in the tourism industry. It has expanded our domestic market for our own agricultural produce in ways that the taro exporters of the 1980s could only dream of. We can now sell our local produce to more of our own hotels and accomodation-providers because they are much more numerous now compared to the 1980s.
In my opinion, it is essential to this country’s economic future that Samoa has a successful and thriving commercial agricultural sector. The reason is that most of Samoa’s land is agricultural land (and most of that is still useful arable land). Most Samoans indulge in some form of 'farming' in one form or another. Every Samoan has a plantation to go to. We have all this land available to us yet we are not making use of it to earn money for ourselves and our families. Instead, we are leaving the country in droves and working to make first-world countries richer, when our land lies idle. This is the real failure of our independence and the promise of 1962.
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