When the Cook Islands needed help to teach their people sustainable gardening which embraced traditional methods, they gave EIT a call.

With their experience assisting our region’s isolated communities become self-sufficient in healthy home-grown produce, EIT’s Primary Industries team were called on to help improve things in paradise.

A few years ago, the Cook Islands’ government commissioned a report which identified a need for the highlands of the islands to become more self-sufficient. It also identified crops they could export to boost their economy.

Because EIT had delivered programmes to the Cook Islands in the past, they were the first port of call when their government agencies decided to develop a practical effective programme to up-skill their people and help them to be more productive.

Hawke’s Bay-based Horticulture tutor Jackie Lynch drew the short straw to visit Rarotonga and work with the Cook Islands Tertiary Training Institute to adapt EIT’s Sustainable Horticulture programme to the tropical climate in the Pacific Islands.

“It was fabulous – I had a blast,” says Jackie, back in New Zealand, with wintery rain falling outside.

“I like the environment, the lifestyle and the heat.  The vegetation is incredibly lush.”

Because of the tropical conditions, crops that grow in summer here are grown in winter in the islands, and in summer the crops are tropical fruits and coconuts. The aim was to help people become more self-sufficient and also retain their traditional methods, says Jackie.

“We worked with representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and wrote a Cook Islands Certificate in Sustainable Horticulture which included health and safety, traditional gardening knowledge and practices, natural garden practices, soils, compost, liquid fertilisers, worm farming, pruning, tools and small machinery.”

If people live on a traditional diet it is easier to live on the average wage of $4 an hour because imported food is more expensive and often less healthy.

Departure from traditional diet has resulted in the Cook Islands having one of the world’s highest rates of obesity, says Rarotonga-based Volunteer Service Abroad co-ordinator Te Kowhai Ohia, who worked with Jackie as a
professional development advisor.

“Cook Islanders are quite an active people and take great pride in the presentation of their yards, but the diet is high in starch and low in vegetables. It costs $14 to buy a cauliflower here.

Something I’m really interested is looking back 60 years at the diet then versus now, and the change in physique that has come about.

EIT’s generosity and support were really significant in getting the programme up and running by the end of May, says Te Kowhai.

“The response has been really exciting. We are confident that there will be a significant uptake.

We are looking at working alongside groups who already have horticultural initiatives underway. It is really cool.”