The Marshall Islands Agriculture Policy Bank

The Marshall Islands, since the 1850’s has been involved in Copra production, and the atolls are widely planted with coconut trees.

This is one of the most underutilized resources and an integrated approach to the development of coconut resources in the RMI has the potential to have a positive impact on the living standards of outer islanders while reducing the reliance on government subsidies for copra.

Several programs need to focus on providing services to farmers with an emphasis on development of skills in agriculture and in basic business planning and marketing of produce- including identifying what types of crops to grow, post-harvest handling and food safety.

Another major issue is providing this customer group with access to credit for tools, seeds etc.