AGRICULTURE PROGRAM

The planned Agriculture Program is intended to help realize the stated goals of the government of the Republic of Kiribati to develop its agricultural sector in order to better nourish its citizens with traditional foods, and reduce the importation of processed foods.  Naturally, the goals of the Kiribati government do or should exist in all atoll environments.  Additionally, needed foreign exchange earnings can be realized through agricultural exports, and having a domestic agricultural industry will help facilitate cultivation of a tourist industry, which in turn could become indispensable in the quest to fight the effects of sea level rise.

Kiribati essentially has three separate agricultural challenges to be addressed: 

• First, sea level rise, and the resulting saltwater contamination of the fresh water lenses that permeate the surface of its atolls, is making traditional agriculture production, such as the growing of taro in fresh water pits, difficult and at times impossible; so village level low-technology solutions need development to moderate these impacts.
  

• Second, the development of a tourist industry, which for all intents and purposes is currently non-existent, demands either the importation or growth of basic fruits and vegetables to feed the tourists;  so the production of western-type consumer fruits and vegetables will be required in support of a tourist industry, principally on Kiritimati (Christmas) and Tabuaeran (Fanning), and such an agricultural industry will require advanced agricultural techniques such as hydroponics and other high-technology methods to cope with the poor soil and water conditions that exist on those islands.
  

• Third, as Kiritimati (Christmas) atoll represents about half of the land mass of Kiribati, but is barely inhabited and only lightly covered with very mature copra plantations, excellent prospects exist on it for the commercial production of fruits and vegetables for export; so the issue is identifying suitable crops for cultivation given its soil and water limitations, determining what markets exist for them, and then overcoming the logistical challenge of ensuring that adequate shipping services are procured.

Each of these three challenges are significantly different in their scope and urgency.  Obviously, feeding its citizens while combating sea level rise is the top priority, and its scope will involve all of the inhabited (or potentially inhabitable) atolls.  Likewise, development of a tourist industry will enhance Kiribati's ability to accommodate foreigners in its quest to fight sea level rise, and such a tourist industry will principally be located on Kiritimati (Christmas) and Tabuaeran (Fanning) atolls, therefore the scope is more limited, however the urgency is also extremely high.  Finally, the development of "cash crops" on Kiritimati (Christmas) is surely important to create employment opportunities, but is the least urgent of them all.

Accordingly, the Atoll Institute plans to initiate preliminary studies of each of these three agricultural requirements in collaboration with selected colleges and universities, with agricultural organizations, and with private agricultural concerns that express interest.  These preliminary studies will be presented to the Kiribati government, and it is reasonable that further field research and small scale agricultural planting and testing would follow.

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