Review: Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands

Over the years, there have been a plethora of outstanding exotic fruit books, starting with the Julia Morton classic Fruits of Warm Climates, Bill Whitman's Five Decades of Tropical Fruits, Harry Lorenzi's Brazilian Fruits and Cultivated Exotics and Bryan Brunner and Juan Rivero's Exotic Fruit Trees of Puerto Rico. Now we may have a new member to add to this group of "must have" books, Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands. Although it does not exclusively cover tropical fruits, the chapters for mangosteen, lychee, breadfruit and bananas offer some of the most comprehensive information you will find anywhere.

Editor Craig Elevitch has expertly crafted twenty-seven chapters using the expertise of many prominent horticultural writers in a collective work that could become the new "food crop bible" for many small and large farmers and food producers in Polynesia and other tropical regions around the world.

Besides the superb color photography, this highly informative book provides detailed information for 26 existing and potential new crops and contains everything that you would require for selecting, growing and marketing these selected crops. Specialists for each type of crop have written these informative chapters including researchers such as Diane Ragone from the Breadfruit Institute who is considered to be among the world experts in this field. 

Chapters

Although written for the tropical Pacific region, the information provided works well for growers in most of the tropical and subtropical regions. Each chapter is divided into sections that cover uses and products, botanical description, distribution, environmental preferences & tolerances, species and cultivars, propagation, cultivation, known varieties, pests & diseases, commercial production, marketing, economics, and other sections depending on the crop.

In addition, each chapter also has a section called "Example Successes" which are short biographies of farmers and food producers that have succeeded in establishing profitable agri-businesses with the food crops mentioned in the book. These include producers like Ken Love who grows tropical fruits in Captain Cook, Hawai‘i, and Bob and Pam Cooper in Kona, Hawai‘i, who grow cacao and process it into a variety of chocolate products. These success stories serve as an inspiration to new and established farmers everywhere.

The Crops

Besides the previously mentioned fruits, the chapters cover plantains, coconuts, black pepper, chili peppers, taro, ginger, moringa, tamanu, sweet potato, macadamia nut, root (tuber) vegetables, cacao, kava, coffee, tea, vanilla, pumpkins and squashes, timber trees, bamboo, macadamia nuts and even beekeeping (Apiculture).

Climate change is bringing new concerns to island farmers and this book offers alternatives for growing foods that can better adapt to dryer conditions and which offer better tolerance to higher levels of salinity in the local freshwater supply.

Another key emphasis of this book is to reinforce the consumption of locally grown native island crops to help combat Western diseases like diabetes and hypertension that have ravaged many native Pacific islanders. These once rare diseases have become common as many locals have stopped consuming native crops like Taro and Breadfruit and shifted to eating processed foods full of unhealthy ingredients.

This book also places an emphasis on the importance of sustainable growing methods and the native island custom of polyculture which is the planting of many types of food plants together rather than a large planting of a single crop. Monoculture is the backbone of the unsustainable modern farming systems used to grow much of the world's modern agricultural output, but is causing havoc with our environment.

Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands is not just a handsome coffee table book but a real "how to" guide for serious enthusiasts and farmers who want detailed information on how to plant, cultivate, harvest and market tropical crops. Everything one might need to start an agri-business is clearly outlined and the world class photography really helps to explain this important story. 

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Noel Ramos is a rare-fruit afficionado and expert who lives in Florida. He is a Slow Food advisor, writes frequently about rare fruits, and lectures about tropical fruits and sustainable agriculture. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..