A Survey of Food Gardens in the Hoskins Oil Palm Scheme.

Abstract

During the period August to October, 1975 a survey of food gardens attached to settler blocks on the Hoskins Oil Palm Scheme (see Figure 1) was conducted. Block ownership was stratified by ethnic origin and 140 food gardens randomly selected for survey. Principal inquiries included total and average garden area by strata, principal crops grown and available fallow periods. The survey indicated a total planted garden area of 605 hectares on the total of 1,439 blocks or .420 hectares per block. Of this average planted garden area, .402 hectares were traditionally located in the "back blocks" and . 018 hectares in "roadside" ancillary blocks (see Figure 2). Areas planted to food gardens suggest the possibility of 6 to 9year rotation periods for larger blocks and 4 to 6 years for smaller blocks. Food production is for both home consumption and market, and some correlation is discernible between garden size and family size and between garden size and marketable surplus. It is concluded that this trend toward marketed produce will continue and that further cash cropping can occur on the larger garden blocks but not on the smaller blocks without adversely affecting yields. The lower estimate of average fallow period suggested that taro (Colocasia esculenta) will decline in importance because the fallow is too short to maintain high yields. The areas of the various staples grown by the different ethnic groups reflect their traditional preferences.