Kiribati

Achievements

Key indicators and performance for 2009-2010

Indicator: Integrated production management packages (for ginger, leafy vegetables, brassicas and papaya) tested commercially in at least three countries

Performance: Smallholder commercial horticultural growers are evaluating integrated crop management practices in Fiji (ginger and brassicas), Samoa (brassicas) and Solomon Islands (aubergines, yard-long beans etc.).

Indicator: Promising processing technologies identified, developed and communicated for forest products and indigenous nut crops

Performance: Promising composites involving coconut wood have been identified. Workshops have been held to disseminate the significant advances made in relation to the processing of canarium nuts.

Indicator: New market-driven product opportunities (including forestry, fruits, vegetables, flowers, fishery products, nuts, herbs and spices) identified and R&D projects to address these designed and implemented in at least two countries

Performance: The Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative (PARDI – PC/2008/044) is now in the implementation phase; initial opportunities have been identified for black pearls, canarium nuts and, potentially, breadfruit and root crops. R&D projects to address these commenced June 2010.

Indicator: Research strategy to strengthen agribusiness linkages for sustainable domestic and/or export market development identified for four products

Performance: Research strategies to strengthen agribusiness linkages for sustainable domestic and/or export market development have been identified through initial work conducted by PARDI (PC/2008/044). Black pearls, canarium, breadfruit and root crops are initial candidate commodities.

Indicator: Productivity and profitability of smallholder aquaculture significantly improved in at least two countries through introduction of new culture technologies, identification of better performing broodstock and development of nutritious low-cost feeds

Performance: Improved production techniques for mabe (half-pearls) have been developed, resulting in improved profitability for the industry in Tonga. Tilapia culture techniques have been improved and effective low-cost feeds developed in Fiji. Work continues to identify better performing stocks of freshwater prawns, as the initiation of the project was delayed by 1 year due to logistical and environmental problems in Fiji.

Achievements from 2009-10 Annual Report

Sustainable aquaculture in the Pacific islands region requires support economically, socially and environmentally. An ACIAR project is assisting PICs while also helping to advance aquaculture by Indigenous peoples in tropical Australia. The project is supporting the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s (SPC’s) Regional Aquaculture Strategy and also supplementing the R&D activities of the SPC Aquaculture Action Plan. It is doing this by identifying and implementing targeted research activities and technology transfer in response to priority issues identified by the PICs—where possible drawing on results and expertise developed through completed and ongoing ACIAR, WorldFish and other aquaculture projects. It also aims to increase institutional capacity among the PICs to support and manage research, particularly in PNG, and to provide technical support for indigenous Australian aquaculture ventures.

To date, the project team has developed 25 mini-projects. One of these concerns the winged pearl oyster, Pteria penguin, and project research is aiding propagation of the species in support of the cultured pearl industry in Tonga. Much of this research relies on successful hatchery culture of P. penguin, which has a restricted reproductive season in autumn. The project’s annual hatchery production in Tonga in 2008, 2009 and 2010 has been successful in producing a large quantity of spat. A major output of the hatchery activity was successful use of commercially available microalgae concentrates to feed pearl oyster larvae. Larvae were reared to settlement on these products, demonstrating that live micro-algae culture is not necessary for larval culture of pearl oysters. This has major potential benefits for hatchery culture of pearl oysters (and other invertebrates) in the region, including reduced reliance on dedicated hatchery infrastructure, reduced hatchery costs and elimination of the need for specialised algae-culture skills.

In parts of Solomon Islands customary rights to marine resources are well defined and traditional institutions continue to influence small-scale fisheries management. Within this environment the potential is high for successful uptake of enhanced community-based management of traditionally owned small-scale fisheries. However, a broader management framework that meets the needs of other environments must be more flexible. With ACIAR support, the WorldFish Center is seeking to develop and test a generic adaptive management framework and a set of diagnostic tools that will guide communities in drawing up community-based management plans. These will be used to address threats from within the domain of the fishery (such as fish stocks, habitat, fishers’ economic viability) while reducing their vulnerability to external threats (such as ecosystem change, trends in world markets, fuel costs).

Highlights of the project include the work of the Kia district communities in Santa Isabel province, who continue to lead the learning for adaptive management processes. The new Kia District Marine Resource Management Committee has agreed to change the thresholds of the sea cucumber fishery indicator in its management plan, based on monitoring results collected since 2006. The committee has also added fish catch recording to its management plan indicators and is using the records kept at the Bahana fisheries centre. The Kia committee has registered as a community based organisation, which allows it to open a bank account to manage funds secured from a proposal to assist in management plan implementation over the next 2 years.

Fiji faces a significant decline in inshore marine and inland freshwater fisheries due to overexploitation, unregulated and destructive fishing practices, habitat modification and pollution of water bodies. This results from human activities including deforestation, agriculture, road-building, hydropower generation, waste disposal, coastal marine area development and quarrying of gravel and sand. In the past 3 decades many countries have responded to such challenges by establishing aquaculture industries to help meet the increasing demand for fish and fish products. In Fiji freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) farming is currently one of the most important sectors in fisheries, and during the past 2 decades its development has attracted considerable attention. Production of prawns is important to local people’s livelihoods, income and food supply. A project is comparing the relative productivity of the prawn strain currently farmed in Fiji against a set of high-performing stocks introduced from Asia, and also seeking to develop low-cost feeds for local farmers.

Major achievements to date include successful introduction of post-larvae from three high-performing culture lines from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, completion of their 21-day quarantine, then rearing to brood-stock stage. The team has also collected feed ingredient samples for analysis. Fisheries staff have received training in prawn hatchery operations and maintenance of the prawn hatchery and brood-stock ponds. They have also assisted in designing 16 new research ponds for growth trials and formulation of protocols for satisfying import health standards in order to introduce into Fiji prawns from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The ACIAR forestry program has a focus on developing species that smallholders can integrate into their village enterprises as a source of reliable income. Teak is one such species, but it has not been used well by the smallholders. A project is establishing trials at various sites throughout Solomon Islands, aiming to establish small stands that will be harvested at around 15 years of age. So far, trials have been established at three rural training centres and community teak plantations are thriving on Guadalcanal, Malaita and Kolombangera in Western province. At one trial in Kolombangera the trees reached 2 m in height in 8 months. Fledgling industries arising from establishment of whitewood and sandalwood plantations in Vanuatu are evolving rapidly. Earlier ACIAR-supported work initiated breeding programs for both species and addressed the fundamental constraints related to the availability of and access to their improved tree germplasm (seed and clonal materials). Current research is advancing both the whitewood and sandalwood genetic improvement programs in Vanuatu (while establishing the basic elements of a sandalwood genetic improvement program in northern Queensland).

Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative

A project commenced this year to study issues particularly affecting food production and agricultural sector development, and support the development of higher value agricultural products, as a catalyst to further economic growth.

Pacific island countries (PICs), being geographically isolated from key growth consumption markets, face many challenges to improve livelihoods and overcome poverty. They have been particularly affected by the food and fuel price surges in 2008, the impact of the global economic crisis, a number of natural disasters, difficulties maintaining infrastructure and the negative effects of climate change. In addressing these issues, the PICs and committed international agencies recognise that the way to overcome many of these challenges is to improve the competitiveness of the industries that provide a platform for stronger economic growth.

Many internationally supported economic development programs are helping to address some of these issues in the region. ACIAR’s Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative (PARDI) complements these programs and is focusing on research for development to underpin the competitiveness of targeted high-value agriculture, fisheries and forestry products. Although a broad range of industries face challenges within the sector, PARDI is initially working with a limited range of products and supply chains that exist in current international and domestic markets but have the opportunity to expand into new markets. These initial chains include sectors that build on current ACIAR activities such as in the canarium nut and pearl sectors. Other commodities such as breadfruit have potential once identified researchable constraints have been addressed and overcome.

Many of the internationally supported economic development programs in the Pacific engage strongly with the private sector. Most of this engagement is based on the premise that the ‘private sector will thrive where government provides the platform for private sector led growth’. PARDI will also work closely with the private sector, both directly and through other existing programs, while encouraging better engagement between the public and private sectors.

The initial geographical focus is in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, based upon current capacity and product focus, with likely expansion into Tonga and Samoa. Initial analysis will be conducted for the likely impact of PARDI activities in Kiribati, recognised as the least developed of ACIAR’s PIC partners, with further activities possible within the scope of the project.