It takes two to Tonga!
For centuries people who have lacked land have rented from landowners with land surplus to their own cultivation requirements. The Kingdom of Tonga, a group of small islands in the South Pacific, is extending this principle at a national level with land-lease agreements with American Samoa and Hawaii.
Tonga has developed its agriculture in the past few years, in particular the cultivation of squash pumpkins, now one of the country's main exports. Wishing to exploit both the cropping and marketing skills of its people but with limited cropland at home, the Tongan government has negotiated the lease of farmland in American Samoa next to the international airport of Pagopago, where the produce will be available for sale. The Pagopago market facility will also offer for sale produce grown in Tonga and in short supply in American Samoa.
Negotiations are continuing in Hawaii for cropping trials on land leased to Tonga by the State of Hawaii and advice on varieties of vegetables to grow in Hawaii is being sought from large-scale horticultural companies in California and from the California Sate Department. Ultimately, skills developed in Hawaii will be transferred to Tonga.
In Tonga itself, a further development is production of two varieties of Japanese watermelons, one with seeds and the other seedless. The seedless variety gets premium prices during the six winter months from October when demand exceeds supply, in Tonga and other countries in the region.
