While the emphasis of this research has been on the creation and development of individual holdings, it may be advantageous to encourage farmers' groups and co-operatives. Promotion of small farmer organisations that vertically integrate production and marketing may strengthen income gains and reduce income
disparities among smallholder farmers. Farmers' groups are currently operating, especially in Vava'u and Ha'apai, but on a basis of labour sharing ventures. However, promotion of export growth, and collective production should be encouraged to enable small-scale farmers to capture the benefits of large-scale
marketing and persistent economies of large-scale production. Co-operative and farmer group arrangements may also enable better access to credit and other complementary inputs that are essential if farmers are to adopt new innovations that will raise their productivity, output and incomes. These self-managed farmer organisations might ultimately take the form of co-operatives, depending on the key limiting factors in the provision of these different inputs and services in the local village community. One reason why farm organisations are necessary is that the costs of dealing with a large number of small farmers is very high. By developing self-managed farmer organisations, farmers can buy inputs in much larger quantities at a cheaper price, and acquire larger group loans, with lower bank service costs per farmer. Farmer organisations are also necessary to increase the participation of rural people in efforts to influence agricultural policy and to
articulate the needs and problems of the farm community to the agricultural service agencies.
Increasing export production from the agricultural sector is regarded as the key factor for the growth of the Tongan economy. The economy urgently needs enlarged foreign exchange earnings. The cash income of farm households needs to be increased to stimulate industrialisation. The increasing commercialisation of the semi-subsistence farms is an important requirement for increasing production with a limited land area. In Tonga where markets for land and capital are not well developed, pricing instruments appear to have limited influence on resource allocation. Market and institutional development are therefore the required
instruments. The market for the farmer must be enlarged. At the same time, the efficiency of the marketing organisations needs to be improved. Since a large proportion of the consumers of agricultural produce is within the agricultural sector, it will be difficult to enlarge the domestic market rapidly. Increasing the export of agricultural products will therefore be an important strategy for enlarging the market for the subsistence farmer.
Based on the findings from this study, given appropriate types of improved technology, supportive
agricultural policies (research and extension, market, land tenure, education, etc), and appropriate incentives, smallholder farmers can simultaneously pursue the goals of increasing national agricultural production and securing increased rural welfare. Fleming and Hardaker (1995 pp 47) noted that the Tongan experience with vanilla, squash and kava indicates that finding the right products to supply to the right markets is not easy.
But, if it can be done, the rewards can be great. However, the sustainability performance of the agricultural sector depends on both how long the niche markets for these crops remain open and profitable for Tongan farmers and the success of efforts to diversify agricultural products and exports to other markets. If the momentum continues long enough, and if sufficient new export crop opportunities are available, the loss of a single market commodity will not be serious enough to stop the momentum for development that will have been built up. Increasing commercialisation requires modification of farmers' objectives towards greater priority on profit maximisation. It also requires improvement in the ability of semi-subsistence farmers to be able to manage the uncertainties and risks that come with increasing commercialisation. For new products and new inputs to be introduced, the dissemination of new knowledge through extension needs to be improved.
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