Kerepua Community Spice Production Project

Kerepua Community Spice Production Project

Original Abstract: It is very difficult for the farmers of Kerepua to reach the Market House in Luganville to sell their goods. The usual crops they take to market are low value but high volume; the costs involved in transporting these products to market (upwards of $150.00 per trip) largely consume what little profit they make. Sensible alternatives to these crops are vanilla and black pepper, which are high value and low volume, and also take up less acreage, which is important in this mountainous terrain. Currently, the price for vanilla is approximately $24.00/pound paid to the farmer, and this is likely to increase due to cyclone damage in other major vanilla producing areas. Simply put, you can make more money with a backpack of vanilla or black pepper than a boatload of any other crop they currently bring to market. If multiple farmers can bring their vanilla and black pepper to market on the same trip, this would drastically reduce transport cost. Kerepua has the ideal climate for vanilla, with a distinct dry season and well-drained soils, and vanilla has a stable market outlet in Luganville (unlike many other crops). The soils and climate are also ideal for black pepper and there is a domestic market in Vanuatu where demand far exceeds supply. The Department of Agriculture introduced black pepper to many parts of our region about 7 years ago, but gave the farmers no training or market outlet suggestions, so the pepper planted at that time has been mostly neglected. I helped 2 farmers salvage a small pepper harvest this year, and successful sales of this harvest have raised awareness in Kerepua to the potential of this crop. We expect this spice production initiative will fill the economic void left by our temporary depletion of sandalwood stocks, until our recent plan for sustainable sandalwood cultivation reaches its first harvest.

Project Update 2700 vanilla cuttings have been planted by private farmers in Kerepua, 150 vanilla cuttings were planted in a plantation for the community, and 150 cuttings were planted in Elia Village to support Ian Livo Primary School. Ian Livo Primary School serves Elia and Kerepua Villages and the secondary objective of setting up this plantation in Elia was to be an educational tool and to make in-roads into Elia, as there is some animosity between the two villages. The community vanilla garden for Kerepua was also set-up to be a demonstration garden, as vanilla is new to the local farmers. These two demonstration gardens will eventually benefit the school and community financially, but over the next few years their primary function will be to serve as a model for farmers to follow. The Spice Production House has been completed; however the hut they built was huge, so now it's the Kerepua Community Resource Center and will serve multiple purposes. Two curing kits (which includes large pots, thermometers, colianders, blankets, coolers, and plastic) hand pruners, and a variety of gardening tools now live in the curing house. There are also various agricultural publications, water supply tools, and other community resources stored there. Previously there was no building for community tools and most things disappeared or were broken.

We’ve planted over 1000 black pepper plants, but due climactic anomalies and other factors unknown only 350 survived, but there are plans to plant a few thousand more during the next rainy season, and we’ll be experimenting with different types of planting material and techniques. Many of these initial 350 seedlings will be added to the community spice plantation and Ian Livo School plantation. Many of the private farmers also rehabilitated their long neglected black pepper gardens and used the pruning material to propagate their own nurseries. These same climactic anomalies also caused high sandalwood mortality. We ended up growing 1000 sandalwood seedlings, with 100 already planted in the bush, and 900 to be planted shortly, but many died during the strong drought followed by heavy rain, but we still have 8000 tree bags and have identified parent trees, and a strong effort will be made during the next seeding season to grow much more in the community nursery.