Food security and small holder farming in Pacific Island countries and territories: A scoping review

Abstract

UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: Zero Hunger links ending hunger to achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) is a region where such linkages can be investigated as the PICTs are confronting climate change while facing a decrease in available arable land and increasing rates of urbanisation. Around 80% of all Pacific Islanders still rely on agricultural produce from their own gardens or from small holder farmers to support or to supplement their diets. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has declared the years 2019–2028 to be the Decade of Family Farming. Food imports are increasingly common in PICTs, and can provide cheap, although not particularly nutritious foods, leading to generalised health problems. Increased reliance on imports is itself an indicator of diminishing food security, and with the PICTs facing a range of food security challenges, it is timely to assess the existing literature in the PICTs on the relationship between smallholder farming and food security. This scoping review analyses 49 peer reviewed and grey literature studies in English from 1970–2019 concerning the relationship between food security and small holder farming in the PICTs. It identifies four main themes: (1) Community adaptation, resilience and crop diversification; (2) Decreased availability of local foods and land; (3) Changes in diet; (4) Gender and agricultural production. The review shows Pacific peoples quickly adapt to changing circumstances to plant different crops both for food and for sale, and it identifies the role of small holder agriculture as crucial to: (1) growing local foods to support food security, and (2) expanding domestic asset creation to promote economic development, especially for women.

What Happens to the Learning Outcomes of Left-Behind Children When Parents Are Away? Evidence from Four Pacific Island Countries

“…Subsistence farming and handicrafts are also major sources of income. The majority of households, particularly on the outer islands, are self-sufficient (Georgeou et al 2022). Source: The World Bank, data bank.…”

The contribution of integrated farming to fulfill the food consumption of Payung Island community's

“…The results showed that integrated farming had contributed to the fulfillment of food needs; almost all of the commodities planted have highly contributed to the food needs of the people of Payung Island. In Pacific Island, the farmers planted different crops both for food and for sale and They had growed local foods to support food security and expanding domestic asset creation to promote economic development [6]. In Payung island, kangkong gave the largest contribution to vegetable crops which reach to 564.90%.…”

“…Agricultural practices in small islands will have an impact on food security, economic welfare and environmental sustainability [4] and it has the added benefit of promoting economic development for women and employment for young people [5]. In Solomon island, the role of women in the archipelago is very important in helping the family economic [6]. However, marginal land has various limitations for agricultural use, including sandy land conditions, low soil fertility, limited availability of fresh water, and minimal availability of fertilizers, less of agricultural human resources.…”

Minority-group incubators and majority-group reservoirs support the diffusion of climate change adaptations

“…Torres Strait Islanders in the South Pacific, for example, have historically dealt with non-anthropogenic climate change, and have culturally evolved practices for tracking seasonal weather patterns and timing crop planting that have not widely diffused to all who might benefit from adopting them [14]. Adaptive practices like this for subsistence farming will soon be widely in demand due to anthropogenic climate change [27]. Such practices tend to diffuse predominantly through person-to-person or household-to-household learning [28,29].…”