Pam caused Vt2 billion loss from kava

The report is the result of an assessment made by the Food Security and Agriculture Sector following the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam and it covered four provinces of Shefa, Tafea, Penama and Malampa.

According to Vanuatu Kava specialist, Dr. Vincent Lebot, the baseline used for the Report is the Report of the official government Census of Agriculture 2006 carried out by the FAO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that highlighted the number of households in the country with kava, cocoa, coconuts, livestock, and forestry. He said the figures in the Report showed a 20% increase in the figures in the Agriculture Census Report based on the 20% increase in population of the country.

The Vanuatu Food Security & Agriculture Cluster CYCLONE PAM Medium and Long Term Recovery and Rehabilitation Strategy 2015 -2017 Report, showed the share of damages and losses between the sub-sector of agriculture – Agriculture — 69%, Forestry – 16%, Livestock – 9% and Fisheries – 6%. The combined losses have been put at Vt6 billion.

According to the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster assessment report on the losses from Kava, a total of 2 million kava adult or mature plants were damaged by Cyclone Pam in the four affected provinces.

Tafea suffered the most impact or damage to the cash crop from Cyclone Pam at 50% or one in two kava plants — a total of 497,808 plants lost. Shefa is next with 20% or two out of every 10 plants, totaling 242,690 plants lost. Even though the impact on Penama was only 10% — one in every 10 plants but because it has the highest number of kava plants at 8,905,152 as recorded in the 2006 census compared to Tafea – 829,680 plants, Shefa – 1,011,208 plants, and Malampa – 1,663,676 plants, the province lost a whopping 1,068,618 plants. The impact on the crop on Malampa is 10%, with 199,641 plants lost because the cyclone only hit south Malekula, the main kava producing island of the province.

Hence, the assessment estimated that 2,007,757 kava plants altogether were lost as a result of Cyclone Pam.

Dr. Lebot said that they used a very conservative of estimate of 10kgs for every plant lost and set a value of Vt1,000 for every plant lost, thereby giving the estimated loss from Kava to the Vanuatu economy of Vt2.3 billion.