Overview of agriculture in the Commonwealth Pacific

Eleven countries in the Pacific are members of the Commonwealth. For the purpose of this study, these have been split into two categories: (1) Small Island Developing States (SIDS), herein referred to as Pacific SIDS, and (2) Australia and New Zealand.

SIDS are a group of developing countries, mostly comprised of small islands, which tend to share similar sustainable development challenges. Except for Australia and New Zealand, all the Pacific countries that are members of the Commonwealth are classified as Pacific SIDS in this study. These countries include Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Just like is the case with the Caribbean countries, the Pacific SIDS are characterised by remoteness, poor infrastructure, vulnerability to external shocks, dependence on imported food, small size, limited resources and isolation from markets. In the Pacific SIDS, traditional farming systems characterised by customary practices and societal norms in the production of crops are predominant.

Below is a summary of characteristics of agriculture in the Commonwealth Pacific.

Food production systems in high (volcanic) islands (large and middle size)

• Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu: Agroforestry, staples like root crops and breadfruit; export commodities; horticulture and limited livestock. There is increasing reliance on imported rice, wheat, energy-dense, nutrient-poor, and cheap imported foods.

Food production systems in low islands (mainly coral atolls)

• Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu: Staples in Tuvalu include coconut, pulaka, taro and supplemented by banana, papaya and breadfruit. Kiribati mainly grows copra, taro, breadfruit and vegetables.

There is currently no formal commercial farming in Nauru

Despite the close geographical proximity to the Pacific SIDS, Australia and New Zealand differ significantly.

First, both nations have per capita gross national incomes higher than $12,536. Per the World Bank classification, this makes them high-income countries. Second, the structure of agriculture in these two countries is different from the structure in the Pacific SIDS as discussed below.

Agriculture in both New Zealand and Australia is characterised by the presence of few farms, but of very large sizes. Average farm sizes in Australia are 10,702 acres (4,331 hectares) and 667 acres (270 hectares) in New Zealand.

Operating at a large scale presents several scale advantages:

• Large farms can leverage scale technologies, for example GPS-equipped smart farming technologies that allow for the reduction of the amounts of applied inputs and other smart farming technologies such as GPS-assisted tractors, drones, satellite images as these are mostly viable on large-scale and monoculture farming. Technological advancements have had a significant impact on farm operations, shifting the agricultural industry to a much more capital-intensive model and resulting in larger farms and increased productivity.
• Operators of larger farms also have better access to information, because of higher human and financial capacity. Similarly, larger agri-food firms generally have more capacity to carry out innovation activities, acquire technology, deal with regulations, and access export markets.