Kumara garden was way to more jobs

Press, 28 February 1980, Page 19

Kumara garden was way to more jobs

A year ago the 2550 hectares of the Otakanini Topu Maori Incorporation at the foot of the Kaipara Harbour near Auckland supported four people in full-time jobs. The farm had 300 owners.

The incorporation exported sheep, cattle and the majority of the owners to Auckland. A few had jobs in the nearest town, Helensville, but for most- the local community and their most valuable asset, the land, could do little to keep them there.

Hapi Pihema, former farmer, sergeant-major, detective — the list could go on — and one of those 300 owners, is trying his best to change that.

Twelve rather run down acres were converted into a market garden some 12 months ago. By now the garden will employ 15, almost four times the number the incroporation employed a year ago; Although the 'pressure to find some way of using the land to provide more jobs for the owners came from many of the owners themselves, it is Hapi Pihema’s task to try and put those desires into a practical form. Kumara was chosen to be the first and largest crop. Apart from being familiar to those who would have to cultivate it, kumara also stores well and, in the local soil, grows well. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and tomato crops soon followed and, now that the garden has been enlarged to 16 hectares, a large area has been planted in garlic. . There have been ups and downs in the last year, but more ups fortunately, than downs.

The kumara crop sold well and there was more of it sell, almost 25 per cent more, than had been predicted. The only serious problem so far has been a tendency for the broccoli crop to run to seed. The financial differences between horticulture and extensive farming of sheep and cattle are as dramatic as the differences in the number of jobs each can provide. The net return on the market garden is about $2500 per acre. For beef

and sheep the return is about $l3O per acre. The capital value of the run-off of which the garden is a part zoomed from $BO,OOO to $300,000 in just the time it took-to plough, plant and harvest a crop of kumaras.

So far all the money for the garden has come from the incorporation’s own coffers. The investment has been considerable. A $12,000 storage shed for the kumaras was built and an impressive collection of tools and machinery to aid with cropping has been bought. The Department of Maori Affairs has played a part. When the plan to develop a garden was suggested, Hapi Pihema was trying his hand at yet another of his many occupations, this time as a community officer for the department.

As part of the department’s “new look,” a marae enterrprises scheme has been set up to encourage Maoris to develop the resources they already possess. At Helensville the department’s contribution has been to allow Hapi Pihema to work full-time organising the market garden, to. help guide it through the pitfalls that any new enterprise meets. The national potential, if the success of Otakanini continues and others are interested, is great. There are 1,224,104 hectares of Maori freehold land. Not all can be farmed and not all that is farmed can be used for intensive cropping. There are, however, many ways in which the productivity of that land can be increased and more of the owners might share in the rewards. At Helensville they are showing that it can be done. The local response to the new venture, after early misgivings, has been good, and field days have helped spread the word. For the next year, apart from a move into avocado pears and attempts to get an export trade in gariic and broccoli under way, the project at Otakanini is to consolidate. If all is Still well the sky could be: the limit. Hapi Pihema is certainly excited by the prospects. In 10 years the 16 hectares of crops could be

almost 200 — jobs for 300 —• vineyards — orchards. With the huge Auckland market less than an hour’s drive away and the chance of exports (Hapi Pihema’s main hope for growth) it might just work. The history of similar efforts, apart from one or two exceptions like the giant Mangatu blocks near Gisborne, is not encouraging.

Commercial cropping flourished before the land wars of the last century. At the beginning of this century, in the late teens and twenties, Maori sheep, cattle and dairy farming also grew rapidly. The growth was not sustained — a lack of finance was one of the biggest problems — and in later years many of the farms became less productive. The appeal- of horticulture is obvious. The returns and the jobs it can offer compared with beef and sheep farming are the most compelling reasons for its adoption; the fragmented nature of many

Maori land holdings Is another.

The drawback is risk. Having such a large number of owners, a Maori land holding is not the easiest piece of real estate in the world to run. Hapi Pihema, mostly through his own skill and experience, has had the kind of results in the first year of his project that leave little doubt that the experiment has been worth while.

Someone trying to emulate his success might not be so lucky.’ The recriminations and changes in direction enforced by a majority of owners, when results were not as predicted or the skills of those trying to attain them were not as great could leave a legacy 'of bitterness and a resolution not to risk again. Horticulture is profitable and it can work;; the danger lies in expecting too much from it — an easy trap to fall into when much Maori land produces little Tor,- its owners at present.