Solomon Islands - Achievements

Achievements

Key indicators and performance from 2007-08

Indicator: Fisheries management arrangements enhanced or economic analyses completed in at least two countries

Performance: The establishment of effective community-based management plans for sea cucumber resources in Solomon Islands has been the focus of a three-year effort in collaboration with the WorldFish Center. Success has proved elusive, and a major new activity is planned to assist communities to better manage their inshore reef-based resources.

Indicator: Demonstrated integration of existing farming systems knowledge and/or adoption of earlier research in at least four Pacific island projects

Performance: Integration of existing farming systems knowledge/adoption of earlier research is demonstrated in several Pacific horticulture projects. For example, one program is utilising root crop germplasm from previous ACIAR PNG and Pacific projects; another is using earlier plant defence stimulator research from a previous project in China; another builds on integrated pest management tools developed in China and DPR Korea; and two others incorporate outputs from sweet potato research in PNG.

Indicator: Demonstrated development and successful field testing of integrated crop management practices for at least two horticultural crops

Performance: Development and successful field testing of integrated crop management practices for Kabocha squash in Tonga (including an Integrated Pest Management strategy) and in brassicas (broccoli and cabbage) in Fiji, with a particular focus on integrated pest management strategies using either alternatives to synthetic pesticides or more targeted use of lower amounts of safer pesticides.

Indicator: Improved agricultural statistics or marketing systems indentified, developed and tested in at least two Pacific island countries

Performance: In a project measuring and forecasting systems for smallholder production and consumption and sales and market-based models for policy simulations have been developed and are being used in the project. In another, a computable general equilibrium model supplemented by partial equilibrium studies has been used to assess the economic and environmental impacts on the Fijian economy of agricultural trade liberalisation, increased agricultural production and trade, providing valuable information for the formulation of policy advice.

Indicator: Field testing of promising sustainable management practices and value addition demonstrated in forestry and agroforestry projects

Performance: Projects aimed at testing and implementing sustainable agroforestry systems with high value species are under way with whitewood in Vanuatu, and another with teak and rosewood in Solomon Islands. Another project aimed at developing coconut wood for the Australian flooring market is making good progress.

Indicator: At least 40 per cent of new projects designed to have significant farmer or policy-maker impacts within five years of completion

Performance: Four of the five new projects commenced in the Pacific in 2007–08 were designed to have significant farmer or policy-maker impacts within five years of completion.

Achievements from 2007-08 Annual Report

Subprogram 1: Improving incomes through productive farming systems

Sustainable aquaculture development is imperative in the Pacific islands region. A series of 14 miniprojects has focused on eight aquaculture commodities in nine Pacific island countries. Examples of outcomes include determination of the viral disease status of Penaeus monodon shrimp stocks in Fiji, paving the way for the development of improved quarantine and testing procedures, and demonstration that the native freshwater prawn Macrobrachium lar can be successfully cultured in ponds as an alternative to the introduced M. rosenbergii. Other projects demonstrated improvements in husbandry for artisanal fish farmers in PNG and Fiji through formulation of cheap, locally available fish feeds. In Solomon Islands the research team developed improved sponge culture methods and investigated markets for Pacific bath sponges. Building on this work, an EU-funded project is supporting village-based farming operations with the aim of producing sufficient quantities of sponges to allow a realistic assessment of the market potential in New Zealand to be evaluated. Through mini projects, local farmers and aquaculture officers in a number of countries have now been trained to collect and/or breed and culture species such as Nile tilapia, indigenous freshwater prawns, anguillid eels and sponges. Fisheries officers also increased their skills in a wide range of areas including feed formulation, feed management, mabe (half pearls) pearl production, survey techniques, water quality monitoring and data recording.

Another aspect of the WorldFish program involved capture and culture of presettlement coral reef fishes and invertebrates. Initially the methods were developed in the Western Province of Solomon Islands, and they have since extended the techniques to other Solomon Islands’ Provinces and also Fiji, Kiribati and Tonga. Following a training workshop, villagers in Western Province are now catching and rearing post-larval tropical lobster, cleaner shrimp and fish which they sell to a Honiara-based aquarium fish exporter. Training workshops have been held in Fiji, Kiribati and Tonga. In Fiji a village has been identified with high potential for successful adoption and community members fully trained. Although not at commercial stage yet, the University of the South Pacific is assisting with developing the fishery. Fisheries officers in Kiribati and Tonga also now have the basic skills to determine if the methods have potential for them.

Also in Tonga the winged pearl oyster, Pteria penguin, is traditionally used for production of mabe pearls for export market to Japan and elsewhere. This oyster species was introduced to Tonga in 1975 and at the end of 2000 there were 25 small pearl farms. A major impediment to the sustainability and expansion of the pearl industry in Tonga is a reliable and adequate supply of oysters. Over recent years, poor recruitment of spat has resulted in the harvesting of adult oysters from the wild, which has further impacted recruitment, and natural spat fall of Pteria penguin in Vava’u is now extremely limited. A project is focusing on the development of appropriate hatchery culture techniques for Pteria penguin and the use of hatcherypropagated oysters for pearl production. The research will help to optimise culture methodology and pearl production as a basis for sustainable industry development.

Globally, horticulture, including floriculture, has become a lead sector for poverty reduction in developing countries. This, however, has not been the case for the Pacific islands. A scoping study investigated the potential for developing the ornamentals industry in the Pacific. While the study specifically covered Fiji and PNG, much of the findings were seen as relevant for the region as a whole. The study found that Fiji’s comparative advantage in ornamental horticulture lies in supplying the non-tourist domestic market, and the industry had made good progress in realising this opportunity. It has been less successful with respect to the tourism segment which offers the most growth potential. Niche export opportunities have been identified for specialty leaves and for indigenous orchids. By contrast PNG offered some outstanding agro-ecological conditions for cut flowers and foliage, but in terms of export market development these advantages were more than offset by intractable marketing and other constraints. It is highly unlikely that PNG could establish a cut flower export industry comparable to that of East Africa and Central America, but a worthwhile cut flower industry could be built around a significant expansion of the domestic market, supplemented by niche export of specialty products.

Evidence from many Pacific island communities suggests that much animal manure accumulates per unit land area, and that lack of proper management of this accumulation can contaminate potable water underground in atolls or in catchments in high islands. Scientists and the people from selected communities are working together to identify practical ways of improving management. A project involving Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati is leading to improvements for communities in all four countries. In a Tongan village 10 farmers have changed from a free-range extensive system, where pigs roam free in the village and nearby land, to a semi-intensive production system with pigs housed at all times. Farmers, at their own instigation and in association with Ministry of Agriculture staff, are already developing ways to improve the way they feed their confined pigs and developing improved health programs. In Tuvalu there is potential for a positive impact on the environment as farmers change the design of their piggeries as well as their waste management. In both Fiji and Kiribati farmers have begun to use animal waste as compost in vegetable gardens. There are potential economic gains in all communities through substitution of organic manure for expensive fertilisers, and farmers have also noticed improved soil structure.

A feasibility study has considered initiatives to develop and progress the production of tropical fruits in Tonga. Given its favourable climatic and physical conditions and its relative abundance of suitable land, Tonga would appear to have a comparative advantage in tropical fruit production. The country’s geographic position relative to New Zealand and Australia is also an advantage. But the study highlighted the number of subsistence and part-time growers that presently dominate the tropical fruits sector in Tonga, and the lack of diversification of tropical fruits and markets. Given its low productivity levels, there is significant scope to increase the production of the Tongan fruit industry. Some key priorities identified in the study were to improve the prospects of fruit production by introducing new fruit species, replace fruit imports where appropriate, and to develop exports of fruit. But future success depended on capacity building and community engagement.

The search is also on for integrated control of powdery mildew and other disease, weed and insect problems of squash in Tonga. A 2007 field trial for controlling powdery mildew on squash using fungicides suggests there is no resistance to currently available fungicides in Tonga. The GRAS (generally regarded as safe) chemicals tested in Tonga and Australia show consistent effectiveness for the control of powdery mildew of squash. A recommendation will be made on the cost to the Tongan and Australian markets on incorporating GRAS chemicals into the spray schedule, reducing the reliance on fungicides. Another success has been to test the effectiveness of growing a cover crop of Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean) on weed suppression. Crops planted in 2006 and again in 2007 have proven beneficial in controlling weed populations while increasing economic returns from squash cultivation.

Livestock production is an important economic activity in Tonga with 80 per cent of households keeping livestock. Major issues restraining the development of a commercial pig and poultry sector are the lack of a local feed manufacturing industry, the high cost of imported feed and the importation of relatively cheap pig and poultry meat, mainly from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A project aiming to establish a local feed manufacturing industry hopes to implement some approaches developed in other South Pacific countries and in Indonesia. Three livestock farmers and a government scientist undertook a 10-day study tour to Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in August, 2007. Following the study tour all the project partners met in Tonga and agreed to develop suitable feeding systems for pigs and poultry in Tonga, based on what they had observed on the tour. The use of cheaper local feed in the alternative feeding systems could lead to an expansion of the smallholder egg, chicken meat and pork sectors, with these farmers making a significant contribution to the meat requirements of the country.

Subprogram 2: Sustainable management of forestry and fishery resources

A project seeks to address key issues relating to the acceptance of coconut wood into the high-value flooring market. Activities are focusing on development of processing systems and profiles for high-quality flooring, and establishment of appropriate grading standards, product specifications and quality control systems. Project leaders and technical staff conducted several initiation meetings and visits to facilities and palm plantations in Fiji and Samoa. They continue to build a network of interested parties and conduct trials with in-country participants. Project staff delivered a training workshop for cocowood primary processing (supported by The Crawford Fund) in Fiji during September. A project website ‘cocowood’ (www.cocowood.net [15]) launched in February delivers information and news about the project and encourages communication between industry, research and other stakeholders. A network comprising industry contacts in Australia, Fiji and Samoa, including flooring market and production specialists, potential resource suppliers and processors, is now in place.

A good start has been made on two projects that are designed to underpin good silvicultural practice in the emerging high value plantation timber industries of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. The species involved are whitewood (Endospermum medulosum) in Vanuatu and teak (Tectona grandis) in particular in Solomon Islands. In both cases, the objective is to develop silvicultural protocols that are compatible with local agroforestry practices. This will involve interplanting with a fast-growing pole species, Flueggea flexuosa, in the Solomon Islands, and intercropping with agricultural and horticultural species in Vanuatu.

The particular challenge for another project has been to assist remote rural communities to develop and adopt sustainable resource use practices for sea cucumber (harvested for commercial purposes) in an environment where there is often poor understanding of the relationship between fishing pressure and future harvests, where processes for negotiating shared management responsibilities are not well developed, and where there are few alternative sources of income to meet their few, but important, monetary needs. The Government-imposed moratorium on the harvest or export of beche-de-mer (processed sea cucumber) from December 2005 to May 2007 provided the project team with the opportunity to work closely and at length with one community, Kia, in Isabel Province, to provide training and workshops, and to assist the community to draft its management plan for the sea cucumber fishery. The process of ‘hastening slowly’ has led to impacts well beyond the target community with the Kia community resource management plan leading to development in 14 other coastal communities, along 140 km of coastline. The Kia marine resources management plan has been officially implemented and project-trained villagers are carrying out the monitoring that will feed back into the management practices, using principles of adaptive management. A similar approach was adopted in a village cluster on the west coast of Vella Lavella, in the Western Province. The next steps will focus on scaling out this work to coastal communities throughout Solomon Islands in a follow-on ACIAR-funded project, with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and FSPI (a regional non-government community-focused organisation) as partners.

Subprogram 3: Biosecurity and pest and disease management

A forestry project aims to reduce the risk of serious damage to the valuable timber resources of Fiji, Vanuatu and Australia from exotic pests by establishing efficient detection systems in high hazard sites. Some major target pests are the cedar shoot caterpillar, wood and bark beetle pests of pines and hardwoods, lepidopterous defoliators, guava rust and Erythrina gall wasp. Since an initial workshop in 2006 country participants have undertaken static trapping surveys. Although there have been difficulties through a combination of theft/damage, poor preservation of specimens in the traps and personnel changes, the surveys have yielded specimens that have been positively identified. One of these was of quarantine significance – the Asian ambrosia beetle (Xylosandrus crassiusculus).

Ginger farming is an intensive horticultural system practiced in Fiji and Australia. Strategies to control soil-borne pathogens of ginger are under investigation. Scientists believe that central to control of nematodes, as well as the fungal pathogens Pythium and Fusarium, is to create conditions that suppress pests and diseases by increasing soil microbial activity and diversity and improving soil nutrition. Preliminary results from Australian field and glasshouse experiments have shown that carbon inputs from plants and amendments improve the biological status of soils while excessive tillage and fallowing have a negative impact. Suppression of root-knot nematode and to a lesser extent Fusarium was enhanced by amending soil with poultry manure/sawdust, and by reducing tillage.

Both large and smallholder farmers in the Pacific islands grow brassicas, mainly head cabbage, Chinese cabbage and watercress, but their crops are frequently infested with diamondback moth. The use of insecticides is the main form of control, but integrated pest management (IPM) approaches to diamondback moth used elsewhere in the world have limited insecticide use while maintaining control. A trial conducted at Sigatoka research station in Fiji tested a preliminary IPM strategy against current farmer practice and control (no intervention) treatments. The experiment showed that IPM effectively managed the pest complex of diamondback moth and large cabbage moth, promoted natural enemy activity and resulted in crop yields which equalled yields achieved by farmer practice. A refined version of the preliminary IPM strategy will be tested in both Fiji and Samoa in the 2008 growing season.

Subprogram 4: Farming systems economics and marketing

A project has attempted to empirically assess the economic and environmental impacts of agricultural trade liberalisation on the Fijian economy, as well as the environmental effects of increased agricultural production and trade. In one study the research team calculated that the economic cost of soil degradation to cane farmers and the sugar industry was an estimated US$8 million per annum, while the industry also lost about US$12 million in sugar sales per annum. Despite the high economic cost of land degradation to farmers and the significant external costs it imposes on society in general, soil conservation was very low on the government’s policy agenda. The project team recommended a more comprehensive study of the issue of land degradation prior to developing policies to address the problem. Nurturing horticulture opportunities was the driver for a unique collaborative venture between the Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and the Samoan Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The project is benefiting both indigenous communities in Cape York Peninsula and in Samoa with reports of increased production of horticultural products among both the communities. The project was designed with twin objectives in mind: to foster the sustainable development of horticulture to supply local and distant markets and to enhance capacity for the development and use of technical information by researchers, extension personnel and farmers. It began with identifying the current information constraints to horticultural industry development for remote communities, the key commodity interests for each community and progressed through to production of a range of grower information on production, marketing and cultivar identification, harvesting and grading as well as a series of health and nutrition factsheets (for 18 food crops including taro, papaya, bananas) for growers and consumers and extension staff in Samoa and other Pacific countries.

The good oil on sandalwood

As a result of very high prices available for quality heartwood, natural populations of several species of sandalwood (Santalum spp.) have been heavily exploited in many countries of the Asia–Pacific region. In most areas, harvesting levels have been well above those that are sustainable. This is the case in Vanuatu, where many populations of S. austrocaledonicum are heavily depleted due to over-harvesting.

But recent ACIAR-funded studies, headed by James Cook University in Cairns, give cause for hope that sandalwood agroforestry could be developed as a commercial opportunity for both communities in Vanuatu and indigenous communities of Cape York. In both study areas the scientists have discovered that 3–4 per cent of local sandalwood tree populations possess exceptional oil qualities. These qualities exceed the industry standards set by Indian sandalwood (a different species), making them a valuable resource for the domestication of the species. Until now neither the Cape York nor the Vanuatu species were thought to have trees of this quality.

The project team has embarked on sandalwood domestication projects in Cape York and Vanuatu. The team had a breakthrough in developing techniques of vegetative propagation that offer opportunities for the rapid development of superior cultivars. This new discovery opens a way for local communities to make a greater contribution to the sandalwood industry through planting of these superior varieties, which would then be expected to produce some of the highest quality sandalwood oil in the world.

The project established a ‘host’ trial in Port Vila (sandalwood is a root parasite and must have a host of another species). Species under trial are Canarium indicum, Casuarina equisetifolia and Pterocarpus indicus. Ni-Vanuatu project participants received instruction in sandalwood plantings establishment, nursery establishment and procedures, sandalwood propagation, plantation establishment and plant improvement.

For a small nation such as Vanuatu, a significant sandalwood plantation estate obviously could make a major contribution to the national economy. It is evident, however, that there is a window of opportunity – if Vanuatu establishes a significant area of successful plantations over the next few years, it will capture the opportunity to ride the wave of high prices; if it delays, then the opportunity will be lost to others. The priority in Vanuatu is therefore to stimulate and promote rapid development of the planted sandalwood industry.

Recognising this, a new ACIAR project is under development, focusing on maximising the adoption of outputs from the earlier project research. It will include the development of a promotion strategy, which will include technical extension material and a prospectus document outlining the investment potential for sandalwood plantings in Vanuatu.

By supporting the development of community sandalwood agroforestry this project can potentially result in positive social, economic and environmental benefits to the people of Vanuatu. Such a move also paves the way for a similar undertaking by indigenous communities in north Queensland.

These activities are significant for the Australian sandalwood oil industry, which stands to benefit through future access to a consistent supply of the high quality oil necessary for producing premium branded products.