Planting Efficiency

Apparent Decline in Planting Efficiency

By Charles E. Sayers

Students of south Pacific economy have become increas ingly critical in recent years of reliance on the coconut as the main cash and subsistence crop of the region.

Belief that this has had a retard ing influence on overall economic development has been hardened by growing insistence, amongst the more sophisticated islanders, for a greater share in the returns from products of the region, and for the introduction of other cash crops, as a supplement to the coconut.

The existing essential facts about the coconut are well known. Many palms are ageing; too many have been neglected; too great reliance has been placed on easy gathering of the copra from the islanders; too little thought has been given to replanting, introducing new varieties, practising better methods of cultivation of copra storage and processing; too little attention has been paid to cleaning up planta tions, and to prevention and cure of diseases of the palm and control of pests; too little of the profits won from the coconut has been ploughed back —and that is bad business in any industry.

There are reasons for some of these things. Labour cost and shortage is one of them; war dam age another; the lack of uniform quarantine regulations yet another.

Uncoordinated efforts to stamp out diseases and pests of the palm, as between the various territorial ad ministrations, can also be cited as a major reason for decline in the

health of plantations and islanders’ gardens.

But none of these reasons, or any others that may be advanced, can excuse the apparent decline in the efficiency of the coconut-growing industry. It should be a major con cern of everyone connected with the industry to do everything possible to arrest that decline.