The Solomon Islands archipelago is part of two distinct terrestrial eco-regions. Most of the islands are part of the Solomon Islands rain forests eco-region, which also includes the islands of Bougainville and Buka; these forests have come under pressure from forestry activities. The Santa Cruz Islands are part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion, together with the neighbouring archipelago of Vanuatu. Soil quality ranges from extremely rich volcanic (there are volcanoes with varying degrees of activity on some of the larger islands) to relatively infertile limestone. More than 230 varieties of orchids and other tropical flowers brighten the landscape. The islands contain several active and dormant volcanoes. The Tinakula and Kavachi volcanoes are the most active.

Through much of the 20th century, under British colonial rule, Solomon Islands represented a classic example of a plantation economy, with coconut production being the primary activity of both village smallholders (individual farmers) and large-scale expatriate (foreign) plantation owners. For village producers, the production of copra (dried flesh of coconuts) is still an important source of cash, and several large coconut plantations are still operating. As a source of export income, coconut products have steadily declined since the 1960s. During the 1990s, a number of coconut oil presses were installed in various parts of the country, and this has increased the value of this product.

For many years, government and international aid donors have sponsored initiatives to diversify the agricultural base of both smallholder and large-scale farmers by promoting the production of cocoa as a new crop. In 1998, cocoa comprised about 5 percent of export income. Also moderately successful has been the production of chilies, mostly at the village level. Fishing is an important activity at 3 different levels: subsistence production (production that only meets the immediate needs of the producer), small-scale cash fishing, and the large-scale offshore fishing industry. Small-scale cash fishing is most successful near urban markets, especially Honiara.

Kastom Garden Association (KGA)
Location: PO Box 742, Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Contact Person: Clement Hadosaia, Manager
Phone: +677 39 551
E-mail: clementh@kastomgaden.org
Website: www.kastomgaden.org

The Kastom Garden Association, established as a charitable trust in 2000, grew out of a five-year programme of an Australian NGO focused on providing services to the subsistence and local market agriculture sector which encompassed the vast majority of the rural population. At the time, this sector was poorly-serviced and poorly-recognised by government, donors, and private sector. The KGA mission is to “strengthen villa-based food security in the Solomon Islands using participatory, practical, grass-roots approaches that enable village people to examine, understand, and develop their own solutions to improving household food security and village-based agriculture economy’.

KGA’s core business is to provide services to members of the Solomon Islands Planting Material Network. KGA’s Planting Material Network has about 3000 members across the country. Most are individual famers but the network membership also includes 175 formal and informal farmer and other village-based groups including women’s and youth groups. Members are entitled to access to the KGA seed bank, a newsletter, and to take part in the various extension services for food security and livelihood improvement.

Since 2010, KGA has selected ten key partner Farmer Organisations in five of the nice provinces of the Solomon Islands to build their capacity to provide extension services to farmers on the local level and based on local needs. These partners are estimated to reach about 40% of the network members. KGA is the national implementing agency for Vanuatu under the MTCP2 project. KGA has carried out a wide-range of projects and activities over the years in support of its members. Recent projects include: Kam Gaden Rural Livelihood Programme: SearmNiu Plant Long Gaden Programmer; a national climate change adaptation project led by the Solomon Isladns Government. In addition, KGA has a seed exchange network – the Planting Material Network (PMN) – that maintains and has available for members approximately 100 varieties of open-pollinated vegetables and root crops. Farmer collections supported by PMN conserve hundreds more varieties of banana and root crops.

Virgin Coconut Oil Producers Association (VCOPA)
Location: Lunga Cross Road, East Honiara, Solomon Is
Contact Person: Wilson Kikolo
Phone: +677 7499804 / +677 20027
E-mail: kpsiwilson@gmail.com

The Virgin Coconut Oil Producers Association was formed in 2004 and formally registered as a Charitable Organization in 2013. VCOPA is committed to assisting the development of coconut resources and it’s by–products to maximise the benefit for the improvement of social and economic livelihoods of all Solomon Islanders. VCOPA has done this in collaboration with Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands (KPSI) who is the leading partner by establishing Direct Micro Expelling (DME) units in villages throughout the Solomon Islands so that rural communities can produce Certify Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (COVCO) which is exported by KPSI.

VCOPA’s core business is producing Quality and Organically Certified VCO oil. VCOPA has over 60 active members who directly own DME Units and involving about 1,200 nut suppliers. VCOPA helps to organise village farmers to invest in planting, management, processing, storage, and transportation. Also in coordinating Association members meetings and trainings. VCOPA in partnership with Coconut Technology Centre (CTC) provides an internal auditing and compliance system for over 1,200 small farmers and more than 60 DME Owners.