The taro monoculture of central New Guinea

Subsistence ecology and carrying capacity in two Papua New Guinea populations

“…3). The de facto population of the five villages numbered about 650 in 1985-86, so the population density was 1-4 persons per km 2 ; this level equals or is a little higher than those of most other Mountain Ok-speaking groups (Morren & Hyndman, 1987). The meteorological information on the area is insufficient; the author's measurements at Selbang village (at 1560 m) for 54 days from 16 October to 8 December 1986, show the mean daily minimum and maximum temperatures at 14-6°C and 22-2°C respectively.…”

“…During the study period, this became a mixed cultivation of taro and sweet potato, sometimes together with Chinese taro (Xanthosoma sagittifolium); a similar change occurred in the recent past in the surrounding areas, i.e. the western side of the Strickland (Bayliss-Smith, 1985;Morren & Hyndman, 1987;Ulijaszek et al, 1987). This transition seems to have been at an initial stage of the Ipomoean revolution propounded by Watson (1965), which occurred in the central highland of Papua New Guinea.…”

The Making of a Montane Taro Garden

“…Oksapmin agriculture is characterized by two modes of clone cultivation: polyculture of sweet potatoes, and monoculture of taro, although some other crops were planted at the edge of the taro garden. Long considered as fragile and vulnerable to parasites (Morren and Hyndman, 1987;Paiki 1996), monoculture is the traditional mode of cultivation by the Oksapmin society. This fragility is offset by the parallel cultivation of sweet potato and cash crops, the latter sold at the mining town of Tabubil, but also by the great number of taro cultivars grown in high altitude gardens.…”

Cause And Afek

“…However, Afek has been associated with some of the developments that are conventionally linked to the adoption of sweet potato, such as population expansion and chronic warfare. In the central Ifitaman area, home to the major Telefolip cult house in which some of Afek's bones are stored, sweet potato was cultivated (Swadling, Mawe and Tomo 1990:1 10), and Morren and Hyndman (1987) suggest that this enabled an increase in pig populations there and played a role in the recent history of out-migration from the Ifitaman area to surrounding valleys.…”