Reforming the leasing and the use of agricultural land in Fiji

7. CONCLUSION – THE WAY FORWARD

 

The history of land tenure in Fiji, since Cession, is complex and of major practical significance. The complexity is self-evident to anyone who has endeavoured to study the extensive literature on the subject. Its practical significance is manifested in the thousands whose livelihood depends on the use of land, in the critical role land plays as an economic factor of production, and because land serves as the anchor in which the Fijian identity is grounded.

The Deed of Cession itself, and the interpretation of that Deed by the early colonial governors, invested ownership of native land with the mataqalis that had ceded the country to Britain in the first place. However, the interests of foreign capital (the CSR in particular) and immigrant labour required access to this land. Together, then, capital and labour sought to pressure the colonial government into creating a land tenure regime that rendered Fijian land ownership nominal rather than effective. These efforts have been manifested in the initial desire of the CSR to require that all leases be held by the government in perpetuity, in proposals to tax Fijians on all land they did not use for purposes acceptable to the colonial government, in compensation provisions to force lease renewals, in legislative threats, and in pressure that was brought to bear to coerce Fijians into parting with their lands to advance the national interest. Faced with these challenges, the efforts of Fijians were targeted on retaining control of their ancestral lands. And just when they thought the had secured control, in the creation of the NLTB, along came legislation in the form of ALTO and then ALTA that effectively crippled the ability of the NLTB to act as guardian of Fijian interests.

In surveying this conflict between immigrant labour and capital on the one hand, and the Fijian landowners on the other, a critically important pattern emerges. The former did not see any need to create an environment supportive of incentives to the landowners willingness to surrender use of their lands through leasing. There was no carrot, only the stick. The entire land issue was seen as a zero sum game in which the settler interest could be advanced only though more and stronger controls. And up to now, labour and capital have been remarkably successful in winning their zero sum game. Perhaps, nowhere is this more clearly manifested than in the extremely low historical incidence of lease non-renewals, in the fact that many tenants’ families have been able to remain on the same land for up to a century, and that, coincidental to this, the rents paid to landowners have been absurdly low.

But in consistently ignoring the need for leasing to be mutually beneficial, the tenant communities have become victims of their own success. Their chickens are coming home to roost. For now, as ALTA leases expire, we see the overwhelming desire of mataqalis to actually exercise their rights of land ownership. After more than two generations during which their land has been effectively indentured, and during which they were victims of a rent system calculated to advance the interests of only tenants and capital, we see a position emerging that can be summarised in two words: never again.

That the emergence of such a position has caught both labour and capital by surprise, despite over a century of co-habitation with the indigenous land-owning community, is most telling. Equally, nobody seemed to take note of the experience in the rest of the world that has demonstrated time and again that legal regulations to advance the interests of tenants are doomed to failure when they are carried on the backs of the landowners.

The thesis that this report has endeavoured to argue is that, ultimately, the land problems in Fiji are attributable to a single fundamental cause – the demonstrable failure of extant leasing contracts to be mutually beneficial. For two generations they have been one-sided bargains predicated on landowner exploitation. The evolution of the agricultural economy and the consumption levels and lifestyles of the settler communities, moreover, have all been predicated on this exploitation. And while the end of this exploitation is long overdue, it is also clear that it will require considerable adjustment all round. Patience and a desire to accommodate will be essential prerequisites for a smooth transition.

Just as the land problems have at their heart a single fundamental cause, their solution in principle is also deceptively simple. All that is required is the creation of institutions that will promote intelligent leasing contracts between individual mataqalis and tenants based on informed consent. In the process, the consummation of such transactions, by being voluntary and intelligent, will necessarily be mutually beneficial. While the creation of the institutional, legal and policy environment necessary to support market-based transactions has proven difficult in some countries, Fiji is particularly blessed in having in place the NLTB which has already been fulfilling some of the required functions. The presence of a re-focused NLTB, coupled, it is suggested, with the economic incentives recommended in this document, offer a blueprint for an equitable and efficient land tenure system suited to the realities of the new millennium.

It has been the belief over the last century that the potential vulnerability of the tenant community warrants legislation or regulation designed to afford them explicit protection. It is argued, however, and demonstrated in the history of Fiji and numerous other countries, that the interests of the tenant community are not served by heavy-handed legislation that infringes on the fundamental rights of the landowner. In this regard, the worst possible policy for promoting tenants’ welfare would be an extension of ALTA or the imposition of some similar legislation. All this would accomplish is the removal of any opportunity to lease. The most effective method of advancing the interests of tenants is to increase their bargaining power. The creation of alternative employment opportunities, education, the creation of incentives that promote and reward productivity and demonstrate accomplishment in agriculture, access to capital, crop failure insurance, and the creation of conditions that will render tenants’ residential investments realisable in cash, will all ultimately prove far more effective. And when leasing conditions are negotiated under a market-based system, tenants will have the opportunity, through their bids, to acquire whatever security of tenure they would be willing to pay for.

With respect to the critically important sugar industry, instead of the end of ALTA being the crisis that many fear, in point of fact it is a wonderful opportunity. It offers a clean break from many of the counter-productive incentives and practices that have been dulling innovation and crippling farm productivity. The move to a market-based leasing system not only maximises leasing opportunities to tenants, it further offers the chance for the best farmers to acquire the best leases and to increase their land holdings. It encourages landowners to see that their interests are congruent with those of their tenants, to see themselves as partners rather than antagonists.

The end of ALTA also permits the introduction of long overdue, bold, new approaches to the development of commercial agriculture in Fiji, designed not just to enhance productivity but also to integrate Fijian landowners into the nation’s commercial economy. The application of a comprehensive system of contract farming is suggested as being particularly appropriate in these regards.

In sum, the end of ALTA is not a crisis and must not be made into a crisis. It is a unique opportunity that must be fully and imaginatively seized. It can be a win-win situation for all stakeholders, and for the economy as a whole. The timing is right, the opportunity is at hand, and we have at our disposal the experience of the past, and the experience of other countries. It would be unforgivable if those charged with effecting a solution did not fully and appropriately avail themselves of this uniquely favourable conjunction.

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