Rural Fiji Research Articles

Investigating soil physicochemical factors influencing trace element contamination at the semi-urban-rural home gardening interfaces on the Fiji Islands

Due to its ecological and public health implications, home gardening soil pollution is challenging. However, the physicochemical factors of trace element pollution in semi-urban-rural home gardening soil interfaces in Fiji are unclear. Self-organizing map (SOM), chemometrics, compositional data analysis (CDA), and soil quality indices were used to evaluate spatial patterns, contamination characteristics, sources, and factors affecting trace element contamination in 55 soil samples from semi-urban and rural Fiji. The average contents of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extractable forms of trace element levels (mg/kg) increased in rural areas as Fe (55.7) > Mn (40.4) > Zn (9.4) > Cu (5.9) and semi-urban areas as Fe (55.2) > Zn (35.9) > Mn (37.1) > Cu (16.1). Rural soils have less ecological risks to home gardening than semi-urban soils. SOM and CDA analysis showed four spatial clusters: clusters 1 and 3 are natural geogenic in rural regions while clusters 2 and 4 are human-induced non-point sources in semi-urban areas. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis showed that semi-urban Cu-Zn was more affected by manufacturing emissions or fertilization, whereas rural Fe-Mn was more likely to be lithogenic. The research found that pH and organic matter significantly affect Cu and Zn pollution in semi-urban soils (p < 0.05). For rural and semi-urban soils, trace element subsets explained 44 %–87 % of soil contamination changes using the stepwise regression model. These findings aid to establishing a primary database of eco-environmental risks and facilitate comprehensive strategies for assessing soil contamination and potential threats to food safety.

An assessment of latrine front-end characteristics and associated surface E. coli indicated faecal contamination in rural Fiji

In Fiji, 90% of the population has access to basic sanitation; however, there are still persistent health risks from endemic faecal-oral diseases such as typhoid fever. There is a need to assess the contribution of existing sanitation facilities in the faecal pathogen transmission pathway. This study was conducted as part of a larger planetary health study across 29 rural communities within five river catchments. This specific research aimed to characterise latrine front-ends, both infrastructure and usage behaviour, and to assess the faecal contamination levels on various frequently contacted latrine surfaces in rural Fiji. A sanitation survey, along with observation and latrine swab sampling, was conducted in households over three phases: baseline (n = 311) (Aug–Dec 2019), endline (n = 262) (Jun–Sep 2022) and an in-depth front-end study (n = 12) (Oct–Nov 2022). Of 311 households, almost all had pedestal-type latrines, predominately cistern-flush (83%), followed by pour-flush (13%), and then hole-type (pit) latrines (4%). Washable latrine floors had significantly higher E. coli densities (6.7 × 102 CFU/25 cm2) compared to non-washable floors (1.3 × 102 CFU/25 cm2) (p = 0.05), despite washable floors indicating improved latrines. The in-depth front-end analysis found that moist latrine surfaces had significantly elevated E. coli densities (1.2 × 103 CFU/25 cm2) compared to the dry ones (14.3 CFU/25 cm2) (p < 0.001), highlighting the importance of maintaining dry latrine surfaces. Latrine floors and mid-walls were the most frequently contaminated surfaces, emphasising the need to clean and disinfect these surfaces. Only 46% of the households reported always using soap for handwashing after defecation, exacerbating the risk of transmitting faecal pathogens. This study highlights that latrine cleanliness and hygiene are as crucial as latrine infrastructures for the effective disruption of faecal pathogens transmission during latrine use.

Investigating the “Thief in the Night”: The Reproduction and Erosion of Indigenous Forms of Social Resilience in Rural Fiji

AbstractAcross the Republic of Fiji, the combination of slow onset climate change and extreme weather events continues to wreak havoc. In addition to direct damages sustained from climate impacts, the uncertainties associated with changes to natural systems in combination with depletion of natural resources and declines in biodiversity provide substantial challenges for Indigenous cultures and rural semi-subsistence livelihoods. Consequently, the concept of social resilience in terms of peoples’ capacities to cope and adapt to social and ecological changes remains important. In this study, we examine local Indigenous systems of social resilience constructed in alignment with the traditional value of relationalism, and concomitant practices of solesolevaki (working together) and kerekere (requesting, gifting, sharing) to (i). understand how social resilience in this local setting is both reproduced and sustained, and (ii).to examine how moral conflicts and ambiguities arising between traditional modes of living and being, and newer, introduced ontologies attributed to late liberalism are affecting social resilience. We present an ethnographic sketch drawn from fieldwork observations and narratives undertaken in rural Fiji since 2016 and apply Robbins’ (2017) theorising of culture and values to examine how people reconcile competing value systems attached to two porous social orders that structure the practices and rhythms of daily life, which Merlan (2005) refers to as the intercultural.

Repurposing agricultural support policies for shared prosperity in rural Fiji

AbstractNotwithstanding the increasing place of tourism exports, the rural sector and its agricultural production remain important contributors to Fijiʼs economy. But their contribution is compromised by policies and institutions that distort the farm sectorʼs resource use, with too many resources employed by sugar and livestock producers at the expense of other farmers and producers of non‐farm products. Subsidies to the sugar industry could be used instead to boost investment in rural public goods such as infrastructure and agricultural research. That would benefit a much larger proportion of rural people, many of whom are below the poverty line. So too would a lowering of tariffs on imports of meat and milk products. And by thereby lowering food prices in urban areas, such re‐purposing of support would benefit their poorest households most. It would also lower the prices of high‐protein livestock products and nutrient‐rich fruits and vegetables, which could well improve nutrition and health.

“Io, keimami leqataka vakalevu na vei gauna mai muri” (“We are worried about the future generation”): Experiences of eco-grief in rural indigenous Fijians

The impacts of climate change are particularly strong in Pacific Small Island Developing States. However, empirical data on mental health and well-being in the context of climate change and climate anxiety in the region remains limited. The aim of this research was to understand the emotional experiences of climate change and its impact on well-being in rural Fiji. Seventy-one Indigenous and traditional Fijian adults from seven rural villages were interviewed. Data were analyzed using an inductive latent thematic analysis. Evident was the experience of ecological grief among Indigenous and traditional Fijians. In particular, grief experiences were related to losses of species and resources, which impacted ways of life and led to the loss of culture, traditions, and customs. Anticipatory grief was also evident, relating to the loss of lifestyle for future generations, and the loss of traditional and ancestral homes through potential migration. Results provide new data from the Global South and contribute to the limited exploration of mental health in relation to climate change in the Pacific region. The results highlight the experience of ecological grief among Pacific Islanders, and underscore the significance of culture loss due to climate change and anticipatory grief.

Transitions and Intersections between Communalism and Possessive Individualism in Rural Fiji: Repercussions for Responding to Climate Change

Indigenous Fijian traditions that are embedded within rural traditions of the vakavanua and the moral economy are often cited as exemplars of social protection and social resilience by the wider climate adaptation community. Recent ethnographic studies have, however, highlighted tensions created by the capitalist cash economy, which promotes individualism over other forms of engagement in the market. Accordingly, this article aims to examine these tensions to identify the consequences for responses to ongoing climate change, arguing that there are other forms of capitalism that blend components of the moral economy with capitalist cash economies. I have referred to these forms of sociality, marketisation, and capitalism as possessive communalism in recognition of the prioritising of sociocentric values and rural traditions of social protection. I argue that it is important for aid organisations and governmental programmes to recognise and support these diverse forms of capitalism that retain traditional values and practises.

Understanding on-site sanitation in rural Fiji: where definitions of sanitation back-ends differ

This study assessed sanitation infrastructure and maintenance practices in rural Fijian communities. The high prevalence of tank type sanitation back-ends highlights the health and environmental risks.

Highlighting Women’s Voices in a Climate Change and Livelihood Narrative: A Case Study in a Rural Fiji Community

Highlighting Women’s Voices in a Climate Change and Livelihood Narrative: A Case Study in a Rural Fiji Community

Factors Associated with Perceived Health and Perceived Nutrition among Women in Nadi, Fiji: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT The current study examined the associations between consumption of traditional foods, perceived health, perceived nutrition and the actual health status of women in rural Fiji. Participants completed dietary and demographic survey. A significant positive correlation was observed between perceived health and traditional starchy root and nut consumption. Perceived nutrition was positively correlated with the consumption of starches, nuts, pulses, and imported processed snack foods. There was no significant correlation between perceived health and actual health indicators. Findings indicate that there is a discrepancy between participant’s perceptions of nutrition and health and their actual health status.

Early Plant Learning in Fiji.

Recent work with infants suggests that plant foraging throughout evolutionary history has shaped the design of the human mind. Infants in Germany and the US avoid touching plants and engage in more social looking toward adults before touching them. This combination of behavioral avoidance and social looking strategies enables safe and rapid social learning about plant properties within the first two years of life. Here, we explore how growing up in a context that requires frequent interaction with plants shapes children's responses with the participation of communities in rural Fiji. We conducted two interviews with adults and a behavioral study with children. The adult interviews map the plant learning landscape in these communities and provide context for the child study. The child study used a time-to-touch paradigm to examine whether 6- to 48-month-olds (N = 33) in participating communities exhibit avoidance behaviors and social looking patterns that are similar to, or different from, those of German and American infants. Our adult interview results confirmed that knowledge about daily and medicinal uses of plants is widely known throughout the communities, and children are given many opportunities to informally learn about plants. The results of the child behavioral study suggest that young Fijian children, like German and American infants, are reluctant to reach for novel artificial plants and are fastest to interact with familiar household items and shells. In contrast to German and American infants, Fijian children also quickly reached for familiar real plants and did not engage in differential social looking before touching them. These results suggest that cultural contexts flexibly shape the development of plant-relevant cognitive design.

New Possibilities for Culturally Responsive Experiential Education in Teacher Education

Background: Understanding how students conceptualize culturally responsive service learning (CRSL) before and after an experiential education (EE) program has the potential to inform the instructional and theoretical designs and long-term possibilities of EE programs in teacher education. Purpose: To (a) explore students’ early-trip conceptions of CRSL in comparison with their end of trip conceptions while on a month-long EE program in rural Fiji and (b) examine which self-reported experiences facilitated the transformation of participant understandings of CRSL. Methodology/Approach: This study was situated in EE theory and critical pedagogy and utilized a narrative inquiry methodology. Findings/Conclusions: Students held traditional notions of service in their early-trip definitions. In their end of trip definitions, the participants’ definitions transformed to include new understandings. Implications: CRSL is a complex concept that requires cyclical reflexivity and self-interrogation. In teacher education, CRSL can serve as a springboard for meaningful culturally responsive fieldwork experiences. Further CRSL programming and research are needed to expand the field and open new possibilities in teacher education and beyond.

Respecting, Embracing, and Honoring Cultural Practices through Collective Storytelling

This article discusses a final writing assignment for “Culturally Responsive Service Learning,” a course taught during a four-week experiential education program in rural Fiji. This elective course was situated in an undergraduate teacher preparation program but included students from a wide variety of disciplines and majors. This article discusses the theoretical and cultural framework for the assignment, the pedagogical decisions that led to the final paper, the process of sharing the assignment with the community through a public event, the limitations of using a storytelling framework from another culture, and suggestions for future adaptations. In alignment with the topic, the author uses two different voices to interweave personal storytelling with academic research. The article opens and closes with vignettes that demonstrate how the class arrived at new levels of critical consciousness through engagement with the readings and learning from Indigenous community partners. The body of this article is written in a traditional academic format. Storied vignettes are italicized for clarity.

“Even if it doesn't come, you should be prepared”: Natural hazard perception, remoteness, and implications for disaster risk reduction in rural Fiji

“Even if it doesn't come, you should be prepared”: Natural hazard perception, remoteness, and implications for disaster risk reduction in rural Fiji

Predictors of Dietary Diversity of Indigenous Food-Producing Households in Rural Fiji.

Fiji, like other Pacific Islands, are undergoing economic and nutrition transitions that increase the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) due to changes of the food supply and dietary intake. This study aimed to examine dietary diversity (DD) in indigenous food-producing households in rural Fiji. Surveys were conducted with households from the Nadroga-Navosa, Namosi and Ba Provinces of Western Fiji in August 2018. Participants reported on foods consumed in the previous 24 h per the Household Dietary Diversity Score. Data was analysed using multinomial logistic regression. Of the 161 households, most exhibited medium DD (66%; M = 7.8 ± 1.5). Commonly consumed foods included sweets (98%), refined grains (97%) and roots/tubers (94%). The least consumed foods were orange-fleshed fruits (23%) and vegetables (35%), eggs (25%), legumes (32%) and dairy (32%). Households with medium DD were more likely to be unemployed (OR 3.2, p = 0.017) but less likely to have ≥6 occupants (OR = 0.4, p = 0.024) or purchase food ≥2 times/week (OR = 0.2, p = 0.023). Households with low DD were more likely to have low farm diversity (OR = 5.1, p = 0.017) or be unemployed (OR = 3.7, p = 0.047) but less likely to have ≥6 occupants (OR = 0.1, p = 0.001). During nutrition transitions, there is a need for public health initiatives to promote traditional diets high in vegetables, fruits and lean protein and agricultural initiatives to promote farm diversity.

Christianity and Climate Change Adaption: Sea-level Rise and Ritualising Village Relocation in Fiji

Development studies are ambivalent about the relationship between climate change adaption and Pacific Christianity. Biblical belief about Noah’s covenant and the End Times are understood to undermine risk perception, while church membership is seen to threaten cross-denominational cooperation, hampering adaptive capacity. Yet the communicative reach and charismatic authority of Pacific churches remains the envy of development specialists working on climate change. This focus on belief and institutional reach, however, neglects how Christian ritual practice can orientate and stabilise faith communities. Drawing on fieldwork in rural Fiji investigating village migration due to coastal flooding from sea-level rise, this paper shows how ritual practice strengthens community resilience when responding to climate change. In Vunidogoloa, villagers employed the Old Testament myth of Exodus to (re)create ritual responses to vent the emotional/spiritual trauma of leaving their ancestral home. Whereas in the nearby village Vunisavisavi, such ritual responses have been lacking and village relocation remained problematic.

Barriers to market for subsistence farmers in Fiji – A gendered perspective

Previous studies of barriers and challenges for Fijian farmers engaging in agricultural markets have primarily focused on supporting semi-commercial farmers to better engage in higher-value domestic and export orientated supply chains. Despite substantial levels of hardship and poverty faced by subsistence based farmers living in rural Fiji; the barriers and challenges for engaging in markets for this cohort of farmers have not been identified.This finding is consistent with our review of contemporary literature on this topic, which highlights an international research intensity focused on small holder farmers’ transitioning from subsistence to commodity or market based agriculture. There is in contrast, relatively little known about the initial barriers restricting subsistence farmers from engaging in local agriculture markets. This area of research is particularly important, as engaging in markets has been promoted as a vehicle through which those in need can escape poverty and hardship. The aim of this article is therefore to understand, through qualitative research methods, the main limitations and barriers confronting rural communities of subsistence farmers across the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. From this broad base, we explore the additional challenges restricting rural women. Our research findings indicate that in addition to numerous infrastructural and physical challenges impeding female farmers, there is skepticism amongst the communities regarding the actual benefit of engaging in the market, given the high risks involved.

Post-disaster Informal Risk Sharing Against Illness

Summary Using original household survey data collected in rural Fiji, this paper demonstrates how informal risk-sharing institutions upon which poor people heavily rely in times of illness are vulnerable to natural disasters. Household private cash and inkind transfers do not serve as insurance against illness in the relief phase; they do so only after pooled resources are recovered in the reconstruction phase (i.e., resource effect). Risk-sharing arrangements are dependent on the history of labor-time transfers corresponding to housing damage (i.e., reciprocity effect): only disaster non-victims are insured against illness, because victims have already received labor help for their rehabilitation from non-victims.

Do Natural Disasters Decrease the Gender Gap in Schooling?

Rapidly decreasing gender gaps in schooling in developing countries can be a result of a gendered division of child farm labor as a coping response to increased natural disasters. This paper makes a case for this conjecture by analyzing original household survey data from rural Fiji. Boys, not girls, contribute to farming only among cyclone victims with dwelling damage, independent of housing aid receipt. Boys' school enrollment is significantly lower than girls' only among victims who did not receive aid early enough. Boys with no elder brother and an educated father are particularly vulnerable in their progression to higher-level schools.

Collecting Social Network Data from Mobile Phone SIM Cards

I used a subscriber identity module card reader to copy the lists of saved contacts from 170 mobile phones in Fiji. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages compared to other techniques for collecting telephone network data. Copying phone contacts avoids recall biases associated with survey-based name generators. It also obviates the need to obtain calling records from network service providers or to provide research subjects with specialized phones. In markets with multiple service providers, or in contexts in which mobile phones are shared extensively, the contents of contact lists may represent personal networks more accurately than actual calling records do. However, owners’ varying durations of phone ownership and varying tendencies to save and delete contacts are sources of error. Also, copying contacts from phones relies on self-reports of tie strength, which are frequently inaccurate. I analyze the data I collected in rural Fiji to evaluate these sources of error.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Barriers regarding cervical cancer and its screening using Pap smear, in rural women of Ba, Lautoka and Nadi, Fiji.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;: Fiji has a high rate of cervical cancer, which is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women in the country. Less than 10% of women are screened for cervical cancer in Fiji.In this paper we report the result of a study on Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Barriers (KAPB) to cervical cancer and its screening with Pap smears, conducted on 1505 rural women in Fiji.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objectives:&lt;/strong&gt; To assess the knowledge, attitudes, practice and barriers to cervical cancer and it’s screening with Pap smears in rural women of Ba, Lautoka and Nadi, in Fiji.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods&lt;/strong&gt;: Structured questionnaires were administered to women presenting to a rural outreach Reproductive Health education and clinics, by trained health educators to ascertain their Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice and Barriers to cervical cancer and its screening with Pap smears.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results&lt;/strong&gt;: Seventy two percent of rural women had no knowledge of cervical cancer and 80% had no knowledge of the risk factors of cervical cancer. Lack of knowledge was significantly different for age groups (p=0.006), education levels and employment status(p&amp;lt;0.001) and ethnicity (p=0.022). Those groups with lowest knowledge were teenagers (18 to 19 years); those with less education; and iTaukei respondents. Of the respondents who had at least some knowledge of the Pap smear, 75% had had a Pap test. Of those who had no knowledge of the Pap smear, only 45% had had the test (p&amp;lt;0.001). Of those who did not have a Pap smear the commonest barrier was lack of knowledge at 46.3% and fear of procedure was 29.4%.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;: More education is required to acquaint women in rural Fiji about cervical cancer, its associated risk factors as well as the benefits of cervical cancer screening programs and other prevention strategies. &lt;/p&gt;