Pacific Island Agriculture: The Contemporary Position in Western Samoa and Some Wider Implications

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Abstract
The post war boom of prices for tropical agric. products has brought economic prosperity to W. Samoa which, since 1945, has been under the trusteeship of new Zealand. Commercial agriculture is concentrated on the production of bananas, cacao and coconuts. Bananas are virtually a native monopoly but one in which both quantity and value of exports fell during the years 1939-49. On the other hand copra and cacao production increased by 35% and 100%. Plantation agriculture has declined; about half of the cacao production and 85% of the copra is raised by natives. Upolu, the more important of the 2 larger islands, has a density of 500 people per sq. mi. of cultivated land although considerable areas of arable land are still unused. Shifting agriculture, the dominant form of producing food crops now must use distant land on steep slopes with high precipitation, and reuse formerly cultivated areas after a shorter period of rest; the Samoans are becoming more and more dependent upon food imported from New Zealand. The people are predominantly Polynesians and have one of the highest rates of increase recorded; during the last 25 yrs. the pop. doubled. The increase in population, the influx of people into Apia, the largest city, and the extension of the planting of export crops are problems for New Zealand who has committed herself to promote the development of the region towards self government.

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