Success without factories and tourists

IT IS not a capital works scheme, or a tourism development, or an export factory yet the development scheme on the island of Mitiaro is hailed as a definite success.

Mitiaro, which is an outer island of 272 people in the southern Cook Islands froup, has been a pilot case in an

ntegrated Rural Development project

set up in 1988 by the South Pacific Commission (SPC) through an invita tion from the Cook Islands Government and the Mitiaro Island Council.

SPC representatives, the national gov ernment and the community created a programme based on what the commun ity felt was needed. Self-sufficiency in

food production was a major priority,

while others were income generation, public health, nutrition, and youth and women’s development.

“The project aims to develop people’s

capacity to look at what they can get out of their own island,” says Kato Tama, who as SPC agriculturalist was one of the original co-ordinators of the scheme for the SPC. “There was a feeling on Mitiaro that the island was a place to grow up in and then leave for Rarotonga. We hope now that Mitiaroans’ confidence in themselves and in the potential of the island has grown through the project.”

The 1842 hectare island has only 120 hectares of fertile land situated inland from the coral, marshes and lakes. In that fertile area a borer and a soil deficiency had, over 15 years, destroyed most of the banana plantations. But the community have replanted and revived these plantations and are now intercropping the bananas with taro, kumura, and other crops. Flourishing

home gardens and some youth and women’s schemes have also been set up.

“You look at outer islands and rural villages around the Pacific and you see a lot of infrastructures buildings, clinics, harbours, mills but often they are not

really used properly because they have

been things others have thought import

ant, not the community themselves,” claims Vaine Wichman, who is SPC assistant economist and one of the SPC co-ordinators of the project. “If people are involved in making the decisions on what is wanted then we find that things are used and cared for properly and there is a sense of belonging.”

To establish community control a NZ$lO,OOO common revolving fund was set up which is administered by the Mitiaro chief administration officer, Cook Islands National Coordinator of Economics Planning, SPC assistant econ omist and three Mitiaroans.

People borrow from the fund to buy tools and seeds. Various periods of repayment are allowed depending on family income level, and this gives growers the financial freedom to buy what they need and plan ahead.

As part of island agricultural develop ment, a system of making home compost has been established similar to tra ditional methods. The Cook Islands Ministry of Agriculture organised house holds to make their own compost from mulch, coconut logs and food scraps. It has proven to be far more economical, is breaking the need to wait on boats for fertiliser, and is ecologically better for the island. Although the bananas have needed a little potassium added to the soil as well, the planting has improved

overall with the home compost.

Family home gardens were also estab lished through the revolving fund with the Cook Island Agricultural Depart ment supplying initial seedlings of tom atoes, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins etc.

The homegardeners built composts which were left for up to a year before being used as a base for planting on the coral surrounding the homes. Prior to this, most of the planting had been done on the inland plantation plots. To ensure the homegardens survived, the women’s group set up a pig vigilante committee that checks the island regularly and fines owners of pigs found destroying gardens.

According to Vaine Wichman, the women are the backbone of the project.

They are also the best loan repayers they make money from weaving, which is the highest income earner on the island. Apart from this, there is little

income-generating activity although ex

perimental crops such as limes and chillies are being trialled.

However, Kato Tama says that com mercial planting is seen as a longer term ideal that will need outside technical assistance in planning and marketing. He hopes that cash crop schemes may eventually be taken up by younger islanders as an alternative to migrating to Rarotonga, Both Kato Tama and Vaine Wichman feel the project has been successful because of its method of integrating people at all levels encourag ing them to question, get more involved, and take control. “To me that shows the success of the scheme, rather than how many gardens are surviving,” Vaine says.

The strong points of the concept will be used on other islands, and this year they are starting another integrated rural scheme in Kiribati. □