The Evolution of Agriculture in a Solomon Island Society
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The Australian Development Studies Centre National University Monograph no.12 Taim bilong mani The evolution of agriculture in a Solomon Island society John Connell ������� d<f'J Q f'J Q f'J (ff& �er; O& �er; O& �er; lJ� °' � °' � OIL� Taim bilong mani The Development Studies Centre has been set up within the Australian National University to help foster and co-ordinate development studies within the University and with other Institutions. The work of the Centre is guided by an Executive Committee under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor. The Deputy Chairman is the Director of the Research School of Pacific Studies. The other members of the Committee are: Professor H.W. Arndt Dr W. Kasper Dr C. Barlow Professor D.A. Low Professor J.C. Caldwell (Chairman) Mr E.C. Chapman Dr T.G. McGee Dr R.K. Darroch Dr R.C. Manning Dr C.T. Edwards Dr R.J. May Mr E.K. Fisk Mr I .S. Mitchell Professor J. Fox Dr S.S. Richardson Mr J. L. Gold ring Dr L. T. Ruzicka Professor D.M. Griffin Dr R. T. Shand Mr D.0. Hay Professor T.H. Silcock Mr J. Ingram Dr R.M. Sundrum Professor B. L.C. Johnson Professor Wang Gungwu Dr G.W. Jones (Dep. Chairman) Professor R. G. Ward Development Studies Centre Monograph no.12 Taim bilong mani The evolution of agriculture in a Solomon Island society Series editor R TShond The Australian National University Canberra 1978 © John Connell 1978 This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries may be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication entry Connell, John Taim bilong mani (Australian National University, Canberra. Development Studies Centre. Monograph; no. 12) ISBN 0 909150 66 4 1. Siuai (Papuan people). 2. Agriculture - Bougainville Island. I. Title. (Series). 630'.91935 Printed and manufactured in Australia by The Australian National University Summary This is a detailed analysis of the transition from a subsistence agricultural system to a quite affluent semi commercial agriculture amongst the Siwai of south Bougainville (the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea). The pre-war agricultural economy, based on swidden cultivation of taro has, along with other facets of Siwai economic life, previously been described in detail (Oliver, 1955); part of this is reconsidered here. The pre-contact agricultural economy was effectively one of 'subsistence affluence'; contact enabled further divers ification and later some attempts at copra production and sale. During the second world war taro blight precipitated a dramatic change to sweet potato and, following experience in observing and working on European plantations and Japanese wartime gardens, Siwais, with the encouragement of traditional leaders, attempted to grow rice for commercial sale. For two decades cash crop cultivation was largely tmsuccessful tmtil cocoa became established; this effectively superseded other cash crops although cattle provided a measure of diversification. The money generated from cash cropping enabled business development, especially trade stores, to attain a measure of success. Cargo beliefs were rarely important. Agriculture in Siwai had become a source of affluence. v Contents Foreword Chapter 1 Siwai: the environmental stage 1 Chapter 2 The people of Siwai 23 Chapter 3 Traditional agriculture: development 42 and destruction Chapter 4 Agricultural recovery: the rise of rice 77 Chapter 5 Siwai Rural Progress Society: the 111 organization of diversification Chapter 6 Coffee and cocoa: towards the cash 130 economy Chapter 7 Pigs and cows: animals in the 179 agricultural economy Chapter 8 Business and cargo 198 Chapter 9 Taim biiong rrrzni: the process of 231 incorporation Appendices No . I Ten year agricultural development plan 254 Buin sub-district Bougainville, 1956-66 (K .I. Tomlin) No . II Siwai Rural Progress Society - trading 258 acco\lllts No . III Copra and cocoa prices 1947-74 259 No .·IV A note on documentary sources 260 Diagrams (see p.viii) Tables (see p.viii) Bibliography 265 vii viii Page Diagrams Figure 1 Bougainville 2 Figure 2 Siwai 3 Figure 3 Siwai population growth 26 Figure 4 Age components of Siwai population 30 Figure 5 Pre-war garden sequences 63 Figure 6 Rice gardens 1949 95 Figure 7 Rice producers 1969-71 133 Figure 8 Coffee producing villages 1960 137 Figure 9 Coffee production 1965 139 Figure 10 Coffee producers 1971-72 141 Figure 11 Cocoa producing villages 1961 143 Figure 12 Cocoa producing villages 1962 144 Figure 13 Cocoa production 1962-63 148 Figure 14 Cocoa growers 1963 152 Figure 15 Village companies 1968 157 Figure 16 Cocoa plantings 1959-72 166 Figure 17 Cocoa price 1956-72 167 Figure 18 Copra driers 1972 174 Figure 19 Pigs 1951 181 Figure 20 Cattle projects 1970 192 Tables Table 1 Siwai rainfall 12 Table 2 Siwai mean age at marriage 32 Table 3 Bougainville birth intervals 33 Table 4 Births and age-specific fertility rates 36 Table 5 Death rates in Siwai 40 Table 6 One copra price 1913-1940 53 Foreword My primary debt is to the people of Siwai and especially those in Siroi and Maisua villages with whom I lived for some seventeen months between November 1974 and April 1976. It was without doubt one of the most enjoyable periods of my life although, in a difficult political climate where the benefits of expatriate research were often not apparent, it was not always without problems . It is naturally impossible to name all of those who taught me something of their life but at the risk of ignoring the many who assisted, some of who se names appear elsewhere in this book, it is essential to men tion a few. It was Anthony Anugu, now Member of Parliamen t for South Bougainville and then President of Siwa1 Local Government Council, who first welcomed and assisted a naive researcher with only a smattering of even Melanesian Pidgin, guided me into my first village and subsequently provided regular intellectual and nutritional sustenance. In the villages where I lived John Stme, Kamuai and Stephen Sukina were foremost among those who were wiliing to put up with my social blunders, my inability to even understand more than a little of their own language and the occasional tedium of systematic enquiry. Without the women, above all Aie the wife of Sune, who provided me with food, and the men and children who were always willing to share coconuts, betel nuts and galips with me, life would have been iunneasurably poorer . It is unfortunately true that many of those who were the kindest and most helpful to me will never be able to read this book. It is, nevertheless, for all of them. Within Siwai I received generous assistance from all the institutions then in existence there: the Siwai Co-operative Society (and especially John Pinoko Sipisong), the Siwai Local Government Council and all the subsequent village governments. Both the Catholic and Un ited Church missions gave me valuable data from their files, and at the Tonu United Church mission Sister Pamela Beaumont was a constant and valuable source of in formation . Elsewhere on the island, the executive of what was initially the Bougainville District Government, and above all Moses Havini and Leo Bannett, were always willing to discuss local political events. Finally, ix x at Bougainville Copper Limited, Cliff Newman especially was most helpful in providing access to records , individuals, transport, and cups of coffee . All of them eased the irregular problems of research work. The original impetus for this study came from Mr E.K. Fisk through his association with the Cotmcil for Pacific Development Studies at The Australian National Un iversity . He has been my guide , mentor and critic throughout the planning , implementation and writing of this research project; without him it would simp ly not have been possible . A different kind of debt is due to the Council for Pacific Development Studies who provided and extended the financial support for this work , made possible by a large and generous grant from Bougainville Copper Limited, and, through the Department of Economics , provided a congenial home for me in the Re search School of Pacific Stud ies. Outside the Australian National University I owe an enormous debt to Professor Douglas L. Oliver of the Un iversity of Hawaii, who not only encouraged me to re-study Siwai but visited me there, bringing useful ideas and criticism, and who has:;read and given valuable comments on almost the whole of the pre:sent manuscript. Finally I am grateful to Michael and Judy Hanmett, also of the University of Hawaii, who throughout my stay in Siwai were themselves carrying out research in the Eivo-Simeku village of Atamo in central Bougainville . Their constant enthusiasm advice, and encouragement were tmfailing supports . The present volume is only one part of a larger study of the evolution of contemporary economy and society in Siwai . In its turn this forms a part of a wider-ranging series of enquiries into the pattern of change through much of the island of Bougainville , a large amount of which is now available and has contributed enormously to knowledge of one of the mo st interesting islands in Melanesia. The present research project was designed primarily to examine the contemporary operat ion of village economies in Siwai , and particularly the relationships between food crop and cash crop production , labour migration and the emergence of bisnis. The Siwai area was chosen because it had already been studied in considerable detail in 1938-39 by Douglas Oliver in his book A Solomon Island Society which would enable the present study to be both comparative and complementary.