Project final report

Building a business case for investment in a coconut industry in the Pacific - Final Report

Date released
01 August 2022
ISBN
978-1-922787-34-7
Publication Code
FR2022-017
Authors

Cameron Turner & Jack Andrews

CO-AUTHORS

Dr Salesh Kumar, Assistant Professor & HoS, Agriculture & Forestry (Fiji National University)

COLLABORATORS

So’o Junior Iuvale, Senior Agriculture Statistics Officer & Taimalietane Matatumua, Assistant CEO, Policy, Planning and Communication Division (Samoa Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries), Noel Kalo, Manager for Agriculture Value Chains R&D (Vanuatu
Department of Industry), Shalendra Prasad, Head of Agriculture Research, and Rohit Lal (Fiji Ministry of Agriculture)

 

Overview

This project aimed to form a sophisticated understanding of the barriers to coconut replanting and develop potential solutions that overcome these barriers to the satisfaction of smallholders.

The focus of this project was the ‘human’ element. Through the use of a Science-Based Lean LaunchPad methodology pioneered by Stanford University and the American National Science Foundation (NSF), this project will form a sophisticated understanding of the barriers to replanting and develop potential solutions that overcome these barriers to the satisfaction of smallholders.

While growing the PIC coconut industry requires solving immense technical challenges (e.g. eradicating or reducing the impact of key pests, producing and distributing quality planting material, offsetting the effects of climate change), it also requires us to solve distinctly human and behavioural puzzles. Unless we have an understanding of what’s driving smallholder behaviour, and, critically, what’s preventing coconut replanting, the real-world impact of technical achievements will be dampened.

View the project page