Self-sufficient Micronesia

Overseas experts believe Micronesia could become self-sufficient in several staple foods. They say there is ample scope to develop the meat and rice industries.

Dr Ernest Rigor, a Food and Agriculture Organisation livestock specialist stationed at Bangkok, said

recently that simple improved breeding of

pigs and chickens could lead to the with drawal of present stock and increase production. In 1975, Micronesia’s meat imports, excluding frozen meat, fish, chicken, eggs and milk, was SUSI 2 million.

Plants should be developed to improve animal feedstuffs. The FAO was con sidering plans to develop stock feed plants m Palau and Ponape using local rice, corn, fish meal and other local products including copra cake. Cattle, goat and pig raising could be greatly expanded, using the family system instead of large ranches.

Mr Chandra Arulpragasam, a United Nations Development Programme agricultural economist, considers agriculture will be most important in Micronesia in future as foreign aid decreases in line with possible changes in the political status of the islands.

Most of the problems of agriculture, not necessarily technical or in agriculture it self, required political or policy decisions.

These included the impact of food imports and high wage levels. The high cost of

labour which made farming unprofitable, came from the competing wage levels of the government payroll.

Thus local production could not be competitive with imports, and local people were not encouraged to go into farming.

There was also an insidious influence creeping into Micronesia through the education system the orientation of education towards white-collar em ployment and tastes for things not

produced locally.

The extended family system was also an impediment to agriculture. If one member of a family earned a salary in a govern ment position he generally shared his in come with his relations. That removed the need for many members of the family to find work, or work on the farms for a cash income.

Mr Arulpragasam said there was a lack of information about what could be produced, distances, transport and stock feed. Agriculture at present represented SUS 3.2 million in exports, with copra alone accounting for SUS 3 million. He suggested, to reach self-sufficiency in food, there might have to be strong measures against imports to stimulate items like meat and rice, even though such moves would be very unpopular because of an acquired taste for them. Also, artificially high wages might have to be lowered so that a farmer could match incomes with an office worker.