By R. Bourdeix & al. (in construction)
A brainstorming session was conducted during the meeting (see the related report).
A brainstorming session was conducted during the meeting (see the related report).
In the
expert opinion, planting material should not be free. It seems that this kind
of incentive is not always efficient. At least in some cases, farmers give
little importance and take little care of seednuts and seedlings that are
delivered free of charge. Moreover, it may jeopardize the development of a
private market for coconut seednuts and seedlings. In some countries as for
instance India, private company, such as Umapathy farms and Deejay farm, are
selling hybrid seednuts. These private companies have many customers and make
good profit. Sometimes, Indian farmers have to wait six month to get their
seednuts because of over demand. Even a private company from Solomon Islands
ordered planting material from these Indian private companies.
Some
incentives are related to the planting of new coconut palms. In the expert
opinion, not all those incentives should be given prior to the nursery and
planting activities. At least part of these incentives should be conditional on
the farmer achieving tangible results, such as the survival and proper
maintenance of the new coconut palms. This requires more accurate and
time-consuming monitoring of activities by agricultural officers. This also supports
more effectively the farmers who are generally better advised. Moreover, it
allows the constitution of farmer’s database that will give a real appraisal of
the efficiency of these incentives and the linked development programs.
Thus,
incentives such as one of the “stimulus packages” developed in Samoa seems
particularly interesting: the selected farmers have to pay 100 WST to join the
program, and then receive free planting material and advices. An interesting
aspect is that this does not restrict to coconut, but include also cocoa and
other tree crops. Thus, it is not limited to one crop species and takes into
account the farm in a more integrated and holistic way. Another way of
promoting new planting could be: the farmer pay seedlings for 1$ each, but 2$
are given back to farmer for each coconut palm surviving and well managed one
year after the planting.
What could
also be free is assistance for installing a leguminous cover crop in coconut
plantations. Such cover crop can fix naturally up to 100 kg of nitrogen per
hectare. Our feeling is that in the pacific region, farmers are killing
themselves to weed manually wild plants that are growing and invading plantations
very quickly. This weeding is extremely gruelling and discourages many planters
who abandon their coconut groves and sometimes do not even harvest the fruits.
About donation and tradition
In
traditional societies, for which most people interactions remains presential
and not virtual, it seems that purely philanthropic acts are rare; when the
gift is practiced, an intangible return is usually expected in terms of social
benefit: the gift publicly values the donor, contributes to generating positive
interactions or easing tensions.
In projects
of limited duration, if the seeds are delivered free of charge, the gift must
be presented as connected to its social context and rather formulated in terms
of exchange: the seeds are given, but in exchange the farmers undertake to
respect good management practices, and to provide information and feedback. In
this case, the management practices required of farmers must be clearly
expressed. It may or may not be the subject of a written and signed contract.
The levels and methods of such contracting require to be studied and optimized
according to the different cultural contexts, and may engage traditional chiefs
and leaders, as recommended by the participants of our meeting.
