In my last blog post, I briefly described a major issue building up under LSS palms of West New Britain, especially at PNG's oldest oil palm project, Hoskins.
Population and demographic changes over the last four decades contributed to intense social and economic pressures experienced today. Added with uncertain and fluctuating oil palm incomes, LSS smallholders' living standard has decreased considerably. Also associated with socio-economic problems, are high incidences of social breakdown and issues over environmental impacts.
In response, most farming families have adopted new oil palm "labour and production strategies" to maintain household economic security and social stability. This post will elaborate further on this.
The changing patterns of household production and livelihood strategies in oil palm Land Settlement Schemes (LSS) of Papua New Guinea is an interesting study at Hoskins (PNG’s oldest and premier oil palm project). This trend is spreading rapidly.
By description, the single household block usually consists of one household made up of a household head, spouse, children and relatives attached to the household such as an elderly parent of the husband or wife, and /or short-term visitors. Multiple households often consist of the elderly original owner, his wife, their married sons (and sometimes married daughters) and their families. On some of the older LSSs, the original owner is deceased and the married sons/daughters now share the block.
Multiple household blocks are complex social and economic units unlike the first nuclear single families and labour and production work are arranged in a way that maintains household economic and social security. Single household blocks feature what is known as the "wok-bung" production and livelihood strategy. Here, family members harvest together as a single production unit and share the income. Multiple household blocks, however, are diverse and have adopted what are termed as the "makim-mun" and "brukim-blok" patterns.
The "makim-mun" pattern is fast becoming a popular strategy, replacing the traditional "wok-bung" and is more common on multiple household blocks. Generally, the "makim-mun" is a monthly rotational system. Co-resident households allocate and rotate the work of harvesting per month, meaning, each take turn and benefit fully from the harvest proceeds of an allocated month. The emergence of this strategy attributes to the growing inter-household conflicts over allocation of labour and/or distribution of income experienced in the "wok-bung" system. Thus, "makim-mun" is merely a shift from "wok-bung" in parallel with increasing households experiencing low income per capita and an option aimed at relieving further tensions between them.
The "makim-mun" rotation strategy is susceptible to break down due to its declining economical value and because of continual disputes over labour remuneration. For example, if there are four co-residential households sharing the oil palm income, each household take three turns per year with four empty months between each payment. In addition, if there are inter-household arguments over labour payment, inter-household labour co-operation fail. When this happens, the household being allocated the harvest may not receive assistance from members of other households and this becomes a barrier in maintaining sustainable production.
Hence, the shakiness of the "makim-mun" allows another strategy emerging on the scene - the "brukim-blok".
This practice is simply splitting the whole block (leasehold property) and allocating each 2-hectare planting to a family household. Most LSS blocks are 6 hectares in size and since individual blocks are permitted three harvest cards to operate - Primary, Secondary and C-card - this new pattern seem to fit in well. LSS blocks are slowly adopting the "brukim-blok" strategy as a means to minimize further social instability associated with the other two practices and more importantly, due to their declining economical value.
In this post, I outlined the shifts in oil palm production and livelihood strategies LSS farming households are adopting to cope with changing needs for survival. Since the reason for the adoption are growers' response to avoid falling into poverty, my next blog post will illustrate how these changing patterns disturb the natural environment by triggering unsustainable practices.
For Eco-Justice, my farmer trainings are designed to work around these strategies so as to minimize poverty and the risks it poses to the natural environment.
Population and demographic changes over the last four decades contributed to intense social and economic pressures experienced today. Added with uncertain and fluctuating oil palm incomes, LSS smallholders' living standard has decreased considerably. Also associated with socio-economic problems, are high incidences of social breakdown and issues over environmental impacts.
In response, most farming families have adopted new oil palm "labour and production strategies" to maintain household economic security and social stability. This post will elaborate further on this.
Coping With Overcrowding Under The Palms
The changing patterns of household production and livelihood strategies in oil palm Land Settlement Schemes (LSS) of Papua New Guinea is an interesting study at Hoskins (PNG’s oldest and premier oil palm project). This trend is spreading rapidly.
The Single Household Block
By description, the single household block usually consists of one household made up of a household head, spouse, children and relatives attached to the household such as an elderly parent of the husband or wife, and /or short-term visitors. Multiple households often consist of the elderly original owner, his wife, their married sons (and sometimes married daughters) and their families. On some of the older LSSs, the original owner is deceased and the married sons/daughters now share the block.
Multiple Household Blocks
Multiple household blocks are complex social and economic units unlike the first nuclear single families and labour and production work are arranged in a way that maintains household economic and social security. Single household blocks feature what is known as the "wok-bung" production and livelihood strategy. Here, family members harvest together as a single production unit and share the income. Multiple household blocks, however, are diverse and have adopted what are termed as the "makim-mun" and "brukim-blok" patterns.
The "Makim-mun" Production And Livelihood Strategy
The "makim-mun" pattern is fast becoming a popular strategy, replacing the traditional "wok-bung" and is more common on multiple household blocks. Generally, the "makim-mun" is a monthly rotational system. Co-resident households allocate and rotate the work of harvesting per month, meaning, each take turn and benefit fully from the harvest proceeds of an allocated month. The emergence of this strategy attributes to the growing inter-household conflicts over allocation of labour and/or distribution of income experienced in the "wok-bung" system. Thus, "makim-mun" is merely a shift from "wok-bung" in parallel with increasing households experiencing low income per capita and an option aimed at relieving further tensions between them.
The "makim-mun" rotation strategy is susceptible to break down due to its declining economical value and because of continual disputes over labour remuneration. For example, if there are four co-residential households sharing the oil palm income, each household take three turns per year with four empty months between each payment. In addition, if there are inter-household arguments over labour payment, inter-household labour co-operation fail. When this happens, the household being allocated the harvest may not receive assistance from members of other households and this becomes a barrier in maintaining sustainable production.
Hence, the shakiness of the "makim-mun" allows another strategy emerging on the scene - the "brukim-blok".
The "Brukim-blok" Production And Livelihood Strategy
This practice is simply splitting the whole block (leasehold property) and allocating each 2-hectare planting to a family household. Most LSS blocks are 6 hectares in size and since individual blocks are permitted three harvest cards to operate - Primary, Secondary and C-card - this new pattern seem to fit in well. LSS blocks are slowly adopting the "brukim-blok" strategy as a means to minimize further social instability associated with the other two practices and more importantly, due to their declining economical value.
In this post, I outlined the shifts in oil palm production and livelihood strategies LSS farming households are adopting to cope with changing needs for survival. Since the reason for the adoption are growers' response to avoid falling into poverty, my next blog post will illustrate how these changing patterns disturb the natural environment by triggering unsustainable practices.
For Eco-Justice, my farmer trainings are designed to work around these strategies so as to minimize poverty and the risks it poses to the natural environment.
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