Papua
New Guinea:
Women and Oil Palm
Oil palm is now a
major cash crop in the South West Pacific island nation of Papua
New Guinea (PNG). The demand for biofuel has prompted speculation
of a spike in demand for palm oil which in turns has sparked a
rush to growing oil palm in many developing countries in the tropic.
In PNG, the World Bank has recently provided another loan under
its Smallholder Agriculture Support Services Project which will
facilitate further expansion of oil palm there. Whilst there
are serious environmental issues such as broad-scale clearing
of rainforests, pollution of waterways and severe sedimentation
of coastal region from oil palm, its social and health impacts
are yet to be understood.
The information contained
in this article is based on several field trips in Oro and West
New Britain Province between 2003 and 2007. Literature reviews
of relevant documents, reports and articles on oil palm were also
carried out.
According to an article
published in Focus, the magazine of the Australian Government’s
Overseas Aid Program, “The oil palm industry is one of Papua New
Guinea’s rural success stories. High growth in oil palm exports
over the last decade has lifted the incomes of many smallholders,
particularly women.”
[1]
The increase in incomes
for women is primarily facilitated through a scheme known as the
mama lus frut scheme. Until the introduction of this scheme,
payment for oil palm harvest often ended up with the men even
though women and children were all involved in the production
of oil palm. Under this scheme, women are provided with harvest
nets and their own payment card called the ‘mama card’, which
allows them to collect the fruit, sell it and receive their own
payment directly. Their job is to collect loose fruit that have
fallen onto the ground at the time of the harvest which is usually
carried out by a man.
[2]
Proponents of oil
palm hailed the mama lus frut scheme as an outstanding
success for increasing
loose fruit collection, bringing women into oil palm production
and increasing their income
[3]
. Nevertheless,
it is more a scheme to increase palm fruit harvest to ensure better
efficiency and throughput achieved at the mill than a women empowerment
exercise. Until the introduction of the scheme, the loose
fruit wastage among smallholders account for up to 14% of the
harvest representing a loss of revenue which is a key concern
of the industry
[4]
with an estimated oil
losses valued at US$ 300.000 (PGK1.2m) per year
[5]
.
Locally, the mama
lus frut scheme has a different connotation – one which is
associated with prostitution
[6]
. According to
a PNG researcher who interviewed numerous people for a study,
the scheme was reportedly
supporting a thriving sex trade because.
[7]
-
· women
who are desperate for cash provide sex to men in exchange
for more loose fruit to be left by the men for them to pick.
-
· there
are now more women working in the oil palm grove offering
an opportunity for a sex trade to take place.
This situation has
dissuaded genuine women pickers, who fear being tarnished with
the same brush, from taking part in the scheme. Some village
women interviewed said they would not pick fruit unless they had
a male escort.
[8]
At
the end of August 2001, 3,271 women had their own mama cards,
representing 67% of all smallholder blocks. Yet they received
a disproportionately low income - only about 26% of the total
smallholder oil palm income
[9]
.
In 2000 their average weekly income is a mere US$ 7.00 (PGK27.75)
per woman
[10]
for carrying out the
back breaking second rate task of picking left over loose fruits
from the ground. It
is true that the scheme gives women an opportunity to earn some
money, enabling them to provide for the family. However,
it is hardly to be hailed as a success story for women and least
of all for their empowerment!
By Lee Tan (Ms),
Australian Conservation Foundation, e-mail:
L.Tan@acfonline.org.au,
www.acfonline.org.au
[1]
“What a difference a mama card makes” in Focus, the magazine
of the Australian Government’s Overseas Aid Program published
by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID),
Spring 2003, p.29
[2]
Based on account given by women participants at the August
2005 Oil Palm Meeting at Kimbe from the meeting notes and
p.170 G. Koczberski, G. Curry & K .Gibson "Improving
Productivity of Smallholder Oil Palm Sector in PNG: A social
Economic Study of the Hoskins and Popondetta Schemes.” Department
of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
The Australian National University 01 Nov 2001
[3]
p.178 G. Koczberski, G. Curry & K .Gibson "Improving
Productivity of Smallholder Oil Palm Sector in PNG: A social
Economic Study of the Hoskins and Popondetta Schemes.” Department
of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
The Australian National University 01 Nov 2001.
[4]
Turner and Leach 1980; Landell Mills 1991 cited in G. Koczberski,
G. Curry & K .Gibson "Improving Productivity of Smallholder
Oil Palm Sector in PNG: A social Economic Study of the Hoskins
and Popondetta Schemes.” Department of Human Geography, Research
School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National
University 01 Nov 2001.
[5]
Turner and Benjamin 1982 cited in G. Koczberski, G. Curry
& K .Gibson p.170
[6]
Notes from the PNG Oil Palm Gathering in Kimbe, East New Britain
Province, 2nd to 6th August 2004 and e-mail communication
with Lester Seri in PNG 20/9/2005
[7]
Jane Morgina, e-mail communications 21/9/2005
[9]
Data obtained from G. Koczberski, G. Curry & K .Gibson
"Improving Productivity of the Smallholder Oil Palm Sector
in PNG: A social Economic Study of the Hoskins and Popondetta
Schemes.” p.174
[10]
Data obtained from G. Koczberski, G. Curry & K .Gibson
"Improving Productivity of the Smallholder Oil Palm Sector
in PNG: A social Economic Study of the Hoskins and Popondetta
Schemes.” P 174.
