Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa

Geoforum, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 173-187, 1997 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0016-7185/97 $17.00+0.00

Pergamon

PII: SOOM-7185(97)00005-5

Maintaining Subsistence Security in Western Samoa

DEBORAH D. PAULSON* and STEVE ROGERS? *Department tFarming

of Geography and Recreation, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3371, U.S.A. Systems Advisor, Pacific Regional Agricultural Programme, University of the South Pacific at Alafua, Private Bag, Apia, Western Samoa

Abstract: The globalization of agro-food systems has often negatively impacted farming households. However, globalization is an uneven process with actors in specific localities able to mediate and shape broad structural forces. The persistence of agro-food systems that are not highly cornmodified in an increasingly cornmodified, global economy is of particular interest to those seeking alternatives to a global agrofood system dominated by corporate interests. The case of Western Samoa is examined here as a possible example of an alternative agro-food system, where agriculture and food networks are local to regional in scale and embedded in communities. Western Samoan village agriculture has shown great resilience in the face of market forces and a ret nt series of disasters. We discuss the internal and external factors that have supported subsistence security in Western Samoa and some of the forces that threaten that security. We conclude that Western Samoans will need an alternative vision of progress to maintain the widespread food security rural Western Samoan households now have. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Key words: agro-food

systems-alternative, subsistence security, globalization agriculture, Pacific agriculture, agricultural transformation, global integration

interested in alternatives to a highly integrated, corporate global agro-food system (Friedmann, 1995; Routledge, 1995).

Introduction The changing nature of agro-food systems is increasingly analyzed in human geography as part of the larger issues of global economic change (Marsden et af., 1996; Whatmore, 1995). While differences in emphasis and interpretation persist within political economic approaches (Goodman and Watts, 1994), there is convergence toward a recognition of the uneven nature of change and the need to understand how broad structural forces are mediated by actors in specific localities. The persistence of agro-food systems that are not highly cornmodified in an increascornmodified, capital-dominated, global ingly economy is of particular interest not only for critical social theory (Watts, 1996), but also for those

of

Many societies experienced reduced social security and sustainability of their agricultural systems as they became integrated into the global capitalist economy (Grossman, 1987; Humphries, 1993; Lewis, 1992; Nash, 1994; Nuberg et al., 1994; Stonich and DeWalt, 1989; Watts, 1983). Yet, growing evidence that actors and social organizations can and do shape the local outcomes of even universal processes (Escobar, 1995; Marsden et al., 1992; Roberts, 1996) suggests that the more negative outcomes of globalization might be averted. Zweifler et al. (1994) conceptualize a stage in the transition from a closed

173

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Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa commodity system to a completely market-oriented system that has more flexibility, diversity and adaptability than either purely subsistence or commercialized societies. Friedmann (1995) also makes a case for an alternative agro-food system, which is not isolated, but in which networks would be as local as possible and embedded in communities. A few groups have maintained a high level of subsistence security while participating in capitalist market production (e.g. Reed, 1995). What can be learned from the experience of groups that have maintained widespread food security while increasing connections to the global economy? Do such systems constitute alternative models that can be drawn upon by other groups seeking greater autonomy within the global agro-food system? This paper explores the case of rural Western Samoa to address these questions. After a brief background on Western Samoa, we describe the degree and form of Western Samoan subsistence security. We then discuss some of the key factors that have enabled most rural households to maintain subsistence security while engaging in the wider global economy. Finally, we explore the forces acting against subsistence security and the types of resistance that might counter those forces. We conclude that without a vision of an alternative to the ‘modern’ development model, rural Western Samoa’s subsistence security is likely to decline. This paper is based primarily on seven 7 months of research in two rural villages on the island of Savaii in 1990 and 1995, supplemented by two months of work in three other rural villages in 1988 (Figure 1). One of us lived with families in the study villages during most of the fieldwork, and conducted agricultural surveys and interviews with the aid of a Samoan assistant. She also interviewed various government, research and development agency personnel. The other of us contributed ideas and information for this paper based on 6 years of living in Western Samoa conducting participatory agricultural research in the South Pacific region.

Background

on Western

Samoa

Western Samoa’s social and agricultural systems survived the colonial era relatively intact. Western Samoa’s social and political system is based on the

175

extended family or ‘aiga and on territorial associations of these groups into villages (Shore, 1982). Each ‘aiga elects, through consensus, a matai who holds the family title and traditionally controlled all family labor and resources. A main village governing body, thefono, made up of all village matai, maintains social and political order in the village. Although some land was transferred to European ownership in the 1800s (most of which was later converted to state control), the sale of land was stopped in 1893 and the traditional land tenure system given constitutional protection at independence in I962 (Schmidt, 1994, Seumanutafa, 1984). Eighty percent of the land remains under the customary tenure system, in which land is held by higa under the authority of the village, and resident family members have rights to use of family land (O’Meara, 1987). There have been important changes in the matai (Lawson, 1996) and land tenure system (O’Meara, 1987, 1995), but these have been informal, indigenous responses to the changing Samoan context. The autonomy of villages in managing resources and social life remains notably strong (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993a). Western Samoa retains a highly agricultural society and economy. An estimated 72% of households are active to some degree in agriculture, with 19% producing for home consumption only and 47% producing mainly for home consumption (Fairbairn, 1993). Most of the non-agricultural households are in the Apia urban area and an expanding suburban area around Apia (Government of Western Samoa, 1995). There are few very large land holdings. Only 1% of holdings are more than 40 ha, and 90% are less than 8 ha divided among several parcels (Fairbairn, 1993). Rural Western Samoan villages have been connected to the global economy for over 100 years. Although contact with Europe came earlier, significant interactions between Western Samoa and the non-Polynesian world began with the arrival of missionaries in 1830 (Meleisea and Meleisea, 1987). The first shipments of coconut oil, produced by the villages to support the missionaries, began in 1842, and by 1850 production of coconut oil was widespread (Lewthwaite, 1962). By the 1950s bananas and cocoa had become major export crops for village farmers wherever road connections were adequate to get the produce to market (Lewthwaite, 1962; Ward, 1959). Production of cocoa and bananas declined to near subsistence levels in the mid-1960s due to hurricane, disease and market problems (O’Meara, 1990).

Deborah D. Paulson and Steve Rogers

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Since the banana and cocoa boom of 1950-1965, Western Samoa’s agriculture has often been referred to as stagnant (Asian Development Bank, 1985; Fairbairn, 1985; Ward and Proctor, 1980). However, taro and ava production for export grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s (Fairbairn, 1993). Lagging growth in the agricultural export sector over the last two decades and an imbalance of trade have led many to call for major changes in the village agricultural system in Western Samoa (e.g. Asian Development Bank, 1985; Schoeffel, 1994; Ward and Proctor, 1980). In the drive for greater productivity, the benefits of the current system are often taken for granted. Among those benefits has been a level of subsistence security that is becoming increasingly uncommon in the developing world.

Subsistencesecurityin

rural Western

Samoa

Samoans’ responses to and recovery from a remarkable and devastating series of disasters beginning in 1990 attest to the strength and resilience of their subsistence agricultural system. In February 1990, a ‘loo-year’ hurricane did considerable damage to buildings, roads and telecommunications. All crops were damaged, and many trees were destroyed. Village households, spurred by quotas set by the villagefono, expanded their taro (Colocusia es&en&) plantations, and food supplies were restored within 68 months with limited assistance from overseas (Paulson, 1993). By September 1990, seven months after the hurricane, the domestic market price of taro was at pre-hurricane levels, and in 1991 the export volume of taro was near pre-hurricane levels (Clarke, 1992; Central Bank of Samoa, 1995a). Most other food crops had also recovered by the end of 1990 (Clarke, 1992). In December 1991, an even more powerful hurricane hit the islands. Few data are available on the impacts of this hurricane; reports were that the damage was considerably greater than in 1990. Again, taro export levels recovered within a year, although export of coconut products and cocoa had not yet approached pre-1990 levels by 1995 (Central Bank of Samoa, 1995a). Prices of three major staples (taro, banana, and breadfruit) on the domestic market had returned to pre-hurricane levels by 1993 (Government of Western Samoa, 1993). Much

of the resilience

of the Western

Samoan

agricultural system in the face of hurricanes was due to heavy reliance on taro (Paulson, 1993). Taro recovers quickly from wind damage and can be harvested in seven months or less in Samoa. It was both a favored traditional food crop and a profitable cash crop for which Samoa had a reliable, though limited, market based on Samoans living in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. (Brown, 1995). However, heavy reliance on this single crop brought its own risk. The devastating taro leaf blight (Phyfophthora colocusiue) appeared for the first time in Western Samoa in mid-1993. By the end of the year the disease had spread throughout the country. Heavy spraying did little, if anything, to slow the disease (Hill, 1995). Supplies of taro on the domestic market in June 1994 were only 1% of the supplies available in June 1993, although the price was five times higher (Central Bank of Samoa, 1994). By the time of fieldwork in 1995, the small amount of taro available in the country was being produced by commercial growers who could afford the high costs of both chemical and labor inputs. Yet, by January 1995, rural households were producing adequate food for their needs (Hill, 1995) and the price of alternative food crops (bananas, ta’amu, breadfruit, yams) on the domestic market had dropped to low levels, as village households began producing marketable surpluses (Central Bank of Samoa, 1995b; personal observation). Adjustment to the blight involved a significant shift in cropping patterns and land use, toward a much more diverse, more ecologically sustainable system. Land use surveys in the study villages before the blight revealed a broad area of lightly managed, old and relatively unproductive tree crops near the village (Paulson, 1992, 1994). A very few land managers had productive, diverse mixed gardens in this zone. Agricultural activity was instead concentrated in a distant and expanding zone of taro and grassland fallow. Most families relied heavily on taro for both food and as an export crop. Taro was grown with few inputs, generally relying for fertility on the continual opening of new land from forest. By June 1995, two years after the taro leaf blight first appeared in Western Samoa, the taro zone in the two main study villages had been almost completely abandoned and was under fallow vegetation. Most households had redirected their efforts to the area nearest the village. This area of old gardens, secondary

Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa growth and senile coconuts had been transformed into well-tended mixed gardens producing a variety of food and tree crops. All gardens had several varieties of banana and at least two varieties of ta’amu (Alocasia macrorrhiza). Most also had yams, cassava, several varieties of breadfruit, and a variety of minor crops and useful plants. Most farmers were intercropping coconut and cocoa seedlings in the mixed gardens. There was much experimentation, with land managers visiting each other’s gardens for ideas. Clearly land managers retained a store of agricultural knowledge about a diversity of crops and intercropping techniques that most had not been using, at least since taro had become a profitable export crop (beginning in the 1970s). Surveys of the planted crops of sample households in the two main study villages, Fusi (n = 14) and Vaipua (n = 15) showed that most households were growing adequate staple crops for household subsistence (Figures 2 and 3). [l] In JuneAugust 1990 (4-6 months after the first hurricane), many families had planted a large surplus of food crops-almost all taro, some of which was probably destined for market. Remarkably, by 1995, most households had recuperated from the loss of their primary food and cash crop in 1993 with little outside assistance. In June-July 1995, most households had enough food crops planted to meet their subsistence needs, although few had a sizeable surplus available for the market. [2] A few households depended partially or entirely on income from relatives working elsewhere for their basic staples (Households C and M in Fusi and A, B, and L in Vaipua). Land holdings and available labor suggest that most households were capable of producing more than they were at the time of the survey in 1995. In Vaipua, all of the sample households had access to some unused land. Households H, J, K, M, N, and 0 in Vaipua (Figure 2) all had large areas of land in fallow and lowproductivity coconut/cocoa, yet had minimal surplus production in 1995. Most of these households had two or three adult, able-bodied males working only on household agriculture-no fewer than Households F and G who had planted substantial surpluses. [3] In Fusi, sample Households E, H, I and K had large areas of idle land, but had shifted most of their labor force out of agriculture, especially after the taro blight. The lack of enthusiasm for surplus production was probably due, at least in part, to the lack of market for

177

the common crops. By June 1995, prices for most food crops were very low on the domestic market. Although a few households were growing a large surplus of various food crops for sale on the domestic market, the majority of informants complained that the domestic market was becoming oversupplied and prices too low to justify the effort. Indeed, in July 1995, a survey of the market in Salelologa, where both study villages market their produce, showed prices for most staple crops were quite low and much produce was going unsold. With the relatively high price of public transport from more distant villages, there was little profit for those selling small quantities of produce. Further evidence that many households were meeting their subsistence needs without undue stress comes from the village social environment. Although less time appeared to be directed toward agricultural production in 1995 than in 1990, the nature and pace of social life was not substantially different. In July 1995, most families in both villages were involved in church-related projects requiring significant outlays of labor and cash. Young men continued to be very active on cricket and rugby teams, and several were undergoing the month-long traditional tattoo process, an event that consumes significant household resources. Interviews of several women in the study villages suggest that their workload had not increased significantly, as is often the case if household subsistence is threatened (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993b). Women reported a shift in their work from weeding of taro and marketing crops to the tending and weaving of pandanus and, in a few cases, to temporary cashearning projects such as making pancakes and buns for sale to village schoolchildren. Women were mixed in their assessment of the impact of the changes on their quality of life. Most missed the cash income from taro, but many preferred doing ‘women’s work’, such as weaving, to helping with the production of taro. In general, the apparent normalcy of village life suggests that many rural households had recovered from the series of disasters to the point that they were able to meet much more than the base of their “hierarchy of needs” (Blaikie et al., 1994). These data from the two study villages, which are not atypical, suggest that most rural Samoans maintain a secure subsistence base that has been resilient in the face of major disturbances. Western Samoan agricul-

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tural production is probably not currently restricted by a shortage of either land or labor, though some households suffer from shortages of both. Rather, rural Samoans retain what Hyden (1981) has termed an ‘exit option’ that enables them to be somewhat selective in the level of their participation in the market.

The bases of Samoan subsistence

security

As is now widely recognized, agricultural globalization is not a spatially uniform, deterministic process (Whatmore, 1995). In Western Samoa, internal factors have interacted with particular external relationships to produce the subsistence security described above. Locally, the strength of Samoa’s cultural institutions and the nature of its resources have been important. Externally, migration, remittances and relatively benevolent foreign policies, especially of New Zealand, have played important roles. Local factors

One critical aspect of subsistence security in Western Samoa has been the maintenance of its customary land tenure system and the closely linked matai system. With 80% of Western Samoa’s land under customary tenure, most Samoans have access to land through their family ties. Each ‘aiga (extended family) in a village has fairly secure rights to various plots of agricultural land historically associated with the family title. Any individual who keeps active ties to an higa through ‘service’ to the family has a right to use some part of the ‘aiga lands when they reside in the village. Forested land inland from the village is considered village land, under the control of the village fono. Village ‘aiga have a right to clear village forest land for their use (O’Meara, 1987, 1995). Drawing on the logic of modernization, some argue that customary. tenure and Samoan social demands are disincentives to more productive agriculture (e.g. Browne, 1989; Croulet, 1988; Schoeffel, 1994). Young people, who do much of the agricultural work, have little control over the fruits of their labor. Moreover, ‘aiga that do not use their land fully or efficiently for a period are unlikely to lose it to those that might use it more intensively. While such aspects of the social system do prevent a Western style of commercial agriculture, they do not

prevent a response to positive market incentives. Village farmers responded with enthusiasm to the strong banana and cocoa markets of the 1950s and 1960s and the taro market of the 1970s and 1980s (O’Meara, 1990 and Figures 2 and 3). Customary tenure has assured rural Western Samoan households a degree of what Herman Daly (World Sustainable Agriculture Association, 1996, p. 9) calls the ‘freedom not to trade’-a level of subsistence security that buffers households against the need to engage in socially and economically destructive trade. Also missed in the focus on cash income are the many other types of work that result in village and family security and cohesion (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993a). Much time is spent on village projects and family rites of passage. While these activities do draw on the same labor and household resources that could be directed at cash-generation, the result is a level of family and community cohesion and security that is rarely observed in fully commercialized societies (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993a). Land and crop resources are other important internal factors supporting Samoa’s subsistence security. Western Samoa’s soil and climate are conducive to year round growth of a wide range of tropical crops. In most parts of the country the dry season is mild, and many soils are moderately fertile (ANZDEC, 1990). Samoa’s generally rocky and steep landscape limits mechanization and the concomitant pressure for land consolidation. Traditional crops (banana, breadfruit, root crops, and coconut) give the system much of its flexibility. Most serve as both food and cash crops, have a fairly flexible harvest period, and are grown successfully without dependence on external inputs or extension services. They are often intercropped, and a variety of cultivars are used. These qualities of the crop resources are the basis for the resilience of the current cropping system in the face of both natural hazards and market changes. [4] External relationships

Perhaps the most significant external relationship influencing subsistence security is migration of Western Samoans to metropolitan countries. From 1921, when Western Samoa’s population began to grow steadily from its post-contact low, to 1971, Western Samoa’s Samoan population grew from 36 688 to 144 111 (Government of Western Samoa, 1995). Between 1971 and 1991, the Samoan population in Western Samoa grew much more slowly, from 144 111

Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa to 158 12 1. [5] Yet the rate of natural increase remains high, an estimated 2.4% over the most recent census period, 1986-1991 (Government of Western Samoa, 1995). The difference is made up by a high rate of emigration to New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. In 1991, the population density of rural Upolu was 54 people per km2 and that of Savaii was 27, almost identical to the densities in 1986 (Government of Western Samoa, 1995). Until recently, most villages could depend on their once large forest reserve to meet the increased demands of a growing population and market production in this century. Especially since World War II, the forest has been progressively cleared for cash and food crops (Farrell and Ward, 1962; Paulson, 1992, 1994; Ward, 1995). Expansion allowed Samoans to meet their growing demand without a need to intensify land use through increases in capital or labor inputs. Many villages have recently reached the limits of expansion, having cleared all available forest. Had rural populations grown at the rate of natural increase over the last two decades the pressure for intensified production would have been high. How rural Samoans might respond to the need to intensify is uncertain. Mixed subsistence/cash crop systems have been maintained in Africa under population pressure, but often with increased labor inputs and increased economic differentiation (Turner et al., 1993). Increased labor inputs would impact the Samoan social system and certain qualities of rural life. In Fusi, where forest is no longer available, the trend for some households to regularly hire out their labor to the few village households that are pursuing a more commercialized agriculture suggests a potential for rural proletarianization and economic differentiation (Paulson, 1992). Without high levels of outmigration over the last decade, the subsistence/cash crop system may well have been more fundamentally transformed. Related to migration are the remittances sent by migrants to their families that remain in the villages. The viability of the current agricultural system may be supported by these remittances. Typical of Polynesia, most Western Samoan families have ‘transnational household economies’ (Ward, 1993, p. 8),, utilizing subsistence and cash crop production, w,a>gejobs and remittances. For example, of the 12 sample households with adult children in Vaipua, 11 had one or more children living overseas in 1995. In Fusi, 11 of 14

181

households with adult children had children living overseas. Six sample households in Vaipua and six in Fusi had children working in Apia. Remittances do not necessarily discourage agricultural production. Among the sample households in Vaipua and Fusi (Figures 2 and 3), there is no clear correlation between remittances and the level of agricultural production. Based on surveys of the location and employment status of children and other close relatives, Households E, I, J, K, M and N in Vaipua and Households C, F, J, L, M and N in Fusi all probably receive high levels of remittances. Many, but not all, of these households grew large surpluses, especially in 1990 when the market conditions were favorable. Conversely, among households without large remittance income, some grew surpluses while others did not. Only in cases of elderly widows remaining in the village without resident children did remittances tend to be regular and used for day-to-day needs (Households C and M in Fusi). While remittances rarely replace the need to produce one’s staple crops, they are often provided to meet special social and village obligations, which increasingly demand cash or cash goods. Overseas relatives are also the major source of consumer goods such as televisions, and, for the few households that have them, refrigerators and vehicles. Thus, remittances enable households to meet some new demands for consumer goods without placing new demands on the agricultural system. There is also evidence that remittances are sometimes invested in agriculture and other household enterprises (Walker and Brown, 1995). Not only the immigration policies, but also the aid policies of metropolitan countries, particularly New Zealand, affect Western Samoa’s subsistence security. Western Samoa is typical of what Bertram and Watters (1985) describe as MIRAB economies, reliant on migration, remittances, aid, and bureaucracy. In 1992, export of goods and services accounted for 3 1% of Western Samoa’s GDP, while aid accounted for 35% and private transfers 29% (Brown and Walker, 1995 citing the Pacific Economic Bulletin Statistical Annex, December 1994). Total per capita aid for Western Samoa in the late 1980s was US$l87 per capita (Luteru, 1994), high by world standards, but typical of small Pacific Island countries. Fifty-five percent of external funds come as bilateral grants from New Zealand and Australia (Luteru, 1994), which do

Deborah D. Paulson and Steve Rogers

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not create a debt burden. Ninety percent of aid funds are spent on infrastructure and economic development, allowing domestic resources to be directed to social development (41 O/O)and administrative services (29%)(Luteru, 1994). If foreign aid dropped significantly, the decline in services, roads, communications and administrative employment would be widely felt in Western Samoa. Thus aid serves the same role as remittances in lessening pressure on village agriculture to meet new material demands.

Western agro-food

Samoa

as model

environmental degradation until the costs become unbearable, people may not effectively organize to resist negative economic and cultural trends until much is already lost. Although some scholars paint a rather bleak picture of the dependency and limited options of Island nations (Connell, 1991; Gibson, 1994; Knapman, 1986; Ward, 1988), household and individual security for the majority in rural Western Samoa is such that discontent is generally not high. Therefore, political-economic and cultural forces toward greater integration and dependence may not be effectively countered.

for an alternative

system?

Is Western Samoa in a position to forge an alternative model of food and agriculture-one that is neither controlled by the global corporate agro-food industries, nor limited to subsistence isolation (Friedmann, 1995)? To what extent can the Western Samoan agrofood system continue to resist fundamental transformation? While local and external resources and relationships have interacted in a way that has generally supported subsistence security, the system is dynamic and the direction of change unclear. Western Samoa has many of the features of a regional food economy that Friedmann (1995) and others see as more humane and sustainable than a corporate global food complex. The linkages between farmers and consumers are close, including a high level of selfprovisioning. The urban population which must purchase food can do so directly from growers at the open market. Coconut and cocoa exports, which have been unstable and falling, are part of the global tropical commodities market, but exports of taro and kava have been largely to Samoans and other Polynesians living in metropolitan countries of the Pacific rim. Land and labor have not been highly cornmodified. On the one hand, the continued local control of resources and lack of strong economic and social differentiation would seem to place Western Samoans in a stronger position than many of the new social movements (Routledge, 1995) acting from the margins of societies already strongly transformed by their integration into the global market. On the other hand, awareness of the global context and one’s position in it may be a critical component of resistance. Just as groups with control over their resources often do not mobilize to stem insidious

Forces toward greater integration and dependence National-level policies in Western Samoa strongly favor an emphasis on greater export production. National development plans, produced with the guidance of donor-country experts, increasingly decry village agriculture for its inefficiency and failure to maintain high levels of export production (Govemment of Western Samoa, 1984, 1987, 1992). While there have been no outright attempts to cornmodify land or overtly transform the customary tenure system, Department of Agriculture efforts have been directed primarily toward modernization of agricultural production rather than toward an alternative model. Lack of acceptance and support of the knowledge and complex motivations of village land managers squanders the potential for building on the strengths of village agriculture which includes the security it provides. In its urgency to find new export crops to replace taro following the blight the Department of Agricture promoted peanuts and ginger with little input from farmers into how they would fit into the village cropping system. The erosive potential of ginger production is a concern, and, if either of these crops were expanded as monocrops, there would likely be increased erosion and a resumption of deforestation. Key Department of Agriculture personnel with whom one of us spoke were not impressed by the diverse mixed gardens of traditional food crops which had sprung up after the blight. They held a vision of a much more export-oriented, commercialized agricultural system modeled on those of the industrialized countries. Although locational and size disadvantages may preclude even modest success along this route (Ward, 1993), national policy looks to agriculture as the main engine for economic growth and material

Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa improvement. Less transformative alternatives are rejected because they are perceived to relegate Western Samoa to continual Third World status. There are also obvious political forces that influence national policy. Well positioned Samoans have much to gain from a transformation of agriculture toward a more ‘modern’ form with greater opportunity for concentrated ownership and improved production and marketing of cash crops. The flexibility of the traditional land tenure and social system has enabled adaptation to new opportunities and circumstances (Ward and Kingdon, 1995) but it can be manipulated by leaders to convert their traditional power, which is highly embedded in social relations within the ‘aiga and village, to modern positions of economic and political power with much less responsibility to the group (Lawson, 1996). There has long been an informal trend toward more individual land tenure within the traditional system (O’Meara, 1995). These trends could lead to the commoditization of land and relationships and the landlessness that often accompanies it. Underemployment is already common in Pacific countries, and the potential for a growing impoverished urban population is high (Bryant, 1993). The barriers to realization of a viable alternative model are not entirely embodied in a national elite. Samoan culture is not immune from the discourse of the global village (or shopping mall). The modern ‘development ethos’ (Overton, 1993) has yet to be effectively challenged. Changing values may threaten the viability of an alternative regional food system on several fronts. First, there is a growing preference for imported, highly processed foods (Government of Western Samoa, 1993). At an FAO conference on Pacific food security held in Apia in 1996, there was much concern about these trends, harmful not only to the local and national economies, but also to the health of the people. Convenience of storage and cooking favor rice, flour and processed foods over fresh produce (Fisk, 1995; Pollock, 1992) and, to some extent, changing dietary habits reflect the growing number of people, particularly women, in wage employment (Goodman and Redclift, 1991). However, the selection of some foods suggests more than changing ‘social relations of consumption’ (Friedmann, 1995, p. 26). A recent survey showed that Samoans preferred brightly packaged, more expensive, imported snacks

183

to locally produced and more nutritious banana and taro chips (Miriama Lauina, Research and Statistics Department, personal communication). Whatever the meaning attached to these corporate products, such preferences run counter to the ideal of a more regionally based food system with shorter linkages between production and consumption. A second, perhaps bigger, threat to Samoan food security is the apparent lack of interest of young people in agriculture. As the quick village responses to the recent hazards indicate, there is still much indigenous knowledge and innovative potential in rural Western Samoa (Clarke and Thaman, 1993; Richards, 1985). However, older matai were generally more experimental and engaged in mixed garden agriculture, both before and after the blight, than were younger land managers. In Western Samoa, traditional social structure has combined with the new opportunities in the global economy to discourage interest in agriculture among young people. Young adults have low status and receive little outward recognition or appreciation for their work. The Samoan saying ‘the road to power is through service’ reflects the traditional importance of providing subsistence to the family as a young person in order to gain social status and power as an elder. Not only are young Samoans today exposed to an unproblematic picture of Western freedoms and opportunities, young Samoans who live away and return for visits (often bearing monetary gifts) are accorded more respect and appreciation than those staying with the rural family to work in the family plantations. Thus many young people chaff at the limits imposed upon them by the social hierarchy of the village system. A possible alternative agro-food system

Western Samoan local institutions and values remain strong (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993a), and could probably be marshaled to counter some of the threats to subsistence security. Village women’s committees have been very successful in health campaigns, and could promote the use of locally produced foods. Literacy rates are high and radios (and more recently televisions) are ubiquitous, so national educational campaigns could also be an effective means to promote locally produced food. The degree to which these efforts can counter corporate marketing of global foods is difficult to predict, but by drawing on the strong sense of Samoan identity and independence, such a campaign could enjoy high success.

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The differences in status accorded those who send remittances or bring home a paycheck and those who stay to serve the family probably will need to be reduced, if rural Samoa is to retain a vital familybased agriculture. It would not require a dismantling of the traditional social hierarchy to institute village and national programs that recognize young people for their agricultural innovations and accomplishments. Distortion of the wage rates by remittances and aid-supported jobs may occur (Ward, 1993) but most Samoans retain many other incentives for work (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1993a), including duty to, and status in the family and village. The potential for improving agriculture within an alternative model could be strengthened if the resources of the state were directed toward, rather than against such a goal. More participatory approaches (Chambers et al., 1989; Pretty, 1995) are already appearing in several externally supported projects. While still exploring ways to effectively work in the Samoan social context, these projects show promise for improving village agriculture and cash crop production without sacrificing household food security. Improvement of the domestic market infrastructure, local valueadded processing, and development of regional markets for a diversity of Pacific food crops would also build on and support the desirable aspects of the village agricultural system. At least in the intermediate term, a diverse, semi-subsistence village agriculture is probably key to maintaining the widespread security which is one goal of an alternative agro-food system. The actions of international players will also influence the potential for a viable alternative agrofood model in Western Samoa. New transportation technology bypasses small Pacific Island states, isolating them relative to Pacific Rim countries (Ward, 1993). This may limit corporate pressure for integration of these small and remote economies. Because of their strategic importance, small Pacific Island countries may continue to enjoy a relatively high level of foreign assistance (Luteru, 1994). New donors are appearing. Since 1990, Japan and China have funded and helped build a hospital and a large government office building, respectively. Although immigration policies will periodically be tightened, most households already have relatives overseas, and migration continues to play a major role. The most recent population report (Government of Western

Samoa, 1995) also places more attention on the need to reduce the rate of natural increase.

Conclusions

Western Samoa has in place an agro-food system that provides subsistence security without isolation from the global economy. The system is dynamic, and political economic and cultural forces toward greater subsumption into the global market may prevail without conscious resistance. Routledge (1995, p. 279) argues that there exists a “growing realization amongst many social movements that resistance should also articulate alternatives to the dominant culture”. Unlike most rural social movements (Peet and Watts, 1993; Routledge, 1995), the Western Samoa system did not arise through conflict with, or in response to, exploitation and the negative impacts of globalization. Western Samoans do not appear to have formulated an alternative vision that could help steer a middle way (Friedmann, 1995) between large scale organization and control of agriculture and food and an isolationist subsistence existence. Yet as Overton (1993) has argued, the potential for a new ‘ethos of development’ is stronger in the Pacific than in many other places, and Western Samoa gives hints of what a viable alternative agro-food system might require. Acknowledgements-Fieldwork by the senior author was supported in 1990 by a grant from the East-West Center, Honolulu, and, in 1995, by National Geographic Society Grant #5387-94. Mafiti Tulia, Lasela Fiu Elato, and Sarai Ieru assisted with fieldwork in 1995.Vae Vaipuna and Gaosi Simone Fiso assisted in 1990. Tina Tauasosi provided translations of taped interviews. The following people were especially helpful in a variety of ways: the Loli Malo family of Vaipua, the Fuauli Maoti family of Fusi, the Alailima Vaiao family of Apia, the staff of Western Samoa’s Department of Agriculture, Tevaga Moelagi Jackson, Fa’alua Matila, Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop, and Francois Martel. Helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript were provided by Bill Cable, Bill Clarke, R. Gerard Ward, Milton Takei, Moshe Rapaport and William Baker, although they will not all agree with the final product. The advice of two anonymous reviewers and Dr Andrew Leyshon was very helpful in shaping the final version of the paper.

Notes 1.

Fifteen households were selected as a stratified (by socioeconomic status) random sample in Fusi and Vaipua in 1990.One of the sample households left Fusi between the two surveys. The number and age of all major crops for each household were recorded in 1990and again in 1995. From these data an estimate was made of the number of

Maintaining subsistence security in Western Samoa

2.

3.

4.

5.

people-days of food (taro, ta’amu, banana, and cassava) that would be produced over the 6 months following the survey. Adjustments were made for expected crop losses, but allowances were not made for differences in yield due to site or management, except in a few cases where poor management was obviously stunting growth. The amount of food needed by each household over the 6 month period was subtracted from the total expected food production for all the measured crops to estimate the people-days of food surplus or deficit. The estimate of household production is conservative because yams and breadfruit were not included in the survey. Breadfruit are seasonally a major staple food, and yams were becoming a significant food crop in 1995. Although women worked in food gardens, in most households, men were the managers and main workers in them. During the fieldwork, no cases of women establishing a staple food garden with their own labor were discovered. Women, however, established and managed most of the pandanus (for weaving) and vegetable gardens. The increased reliance on cassava as a food source in villages such as Fusi since the loss of taro (Figure 3) may be problematic. Cassava has potentially negative nutritional and environmental impacts (Thaman and Thomas, 1985), and, until the taro blight, Western Samoa stood out in the Pacific for its rejection of cassava as an acceptable food crop. However, cassava has the ability to produce high yields in a short time on relatively infertile soils. Used carefully, it may fit well into the mixed crop system as the last crop of a rotation. Never a large percentage of the population, non-Samoans have not made up more than 2% of the population since independence in 1962 (Government of Western Samoa, 1995).

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