Polynesian farmers earn praise in scientific study

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i's early Polynesian settlers have been lauded for their greatness as navigators, but they don't get enough credit for their farming skills, according to an international research team.

Writing in the June 11 edition of the journal Science, the researchers conclude that Polynesian settlers were able to identify swaths of mineral-rich soil and establish vast agricultural complexes where they raised sweet potatoes and other crops.

"They were fantastic farmers. They were able to develop and sustain intensive agricultural systems in tropical environments that are very difficult to farm," said Peter Vitousek, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and lead author.

Vitousek and his co-authors, including M.W. Graves of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, focused on Kohala on the Big Island, where remnants of long-abandoned fields are still visible. Soil tests provided evidence that early inhabitants discovered a "sweet spot" of high soil fertility under dense forests that received enough rain to harvest large quantities of sweet potatoes.

The scientists said that combination of rainfall and fertile soil did not exist on Kaua'i, O'ahu and Moloka'i, where taro was more common.

Anthropologists speculate that pressure to find new food sources may be one reason why Kamehameha I launched an invasion in 1795 that culminated in uniting the islands.