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The role of agricultural innovation on Pacific Islands: a case study from Hawai'i Island

Abstract Agriculture was essential in providing for food security, population growth and surplus social production on Pacific Islands. This paper discusses innovations first seen between ad 1400 and 1650 that opened up roughly 60 per cent of the available farm land in the Hawaiian Islands. These innovations include terraced fields in narrow gulches, some using simple flooding to take irrigation water to adjacent lands, and permanent rock and earthen alignments that served as windbreaks, retained soil moisture and lessened erosion. The resulting expansion pushed agriculture into increasingly marginal areas and helped the transition to a surplus-driven agrarian economy. Elite competition for territory promoted the production of surplus and the resulting increased geographic scale of polities helped reduce the burden of supporting the non-producer class by spreading the cost over a broader area.