The jarring sound of men hocking spit contrasts sharply with the quiet conversation and humming cicadas at Port Vila’s waterside Nagotambo Nakamal at dusk.
“It’s like, [the] nectar of the gods. It’s sacred,” local Josh Rasu says slowly and in hushed tones, as the plant extract begins to take effect.
“Big ceremony or a big wedding … kava has to be there.”
But one thing stands in the way of its commercial success – climate change.
Vanuatu’s ‘green cash’ economy
Josh Rasu has lived on Efate, where the capital is located, for 10 years after relocating from Espiritu Santo in the north.
“Where I come from, there’s huge farms of kava. People call it ‘green cash’ because it makes a lot of money here,” he says.
The national census in 2020 found the country had a strong domestic market for kava, which provided income and support to around 26,000 households or 42% of the population.
“We make a lot of money on kava, domestically,” Josh says.
“We don’t need to export or do stuff to earn money, we just need to sell kava [to locals].”
‘Crazy about Kava’
There is strong demand for Vanuatu kava at home and abroad, averaging VUV $766million (US$63million) in exports annually between 2011 to 2014, according to Vanuatu Business Review.
Joseph Brun, a local exporter, has been in the industry for 30 years and acknowledges he was always “crazy about kava”.
“I love kava, I just love the whole aspect of it,” he says.
Joseph learnt the ropes of the kava business by operating his own nakamal (kava bar) and later explored the untapped potential in exporting.
Now, he travels the island chain and engages with growers to source produce and keep up with international demand.
“It has risen in a couple of years, now the whole country is trying to replace alcohol with kava because of the side effects,” Joseph says.
‘Big problems growing kava’
Growing kava, and enough of it amid increasing and intensifying natural disasters, is fraught with challenges given Vanuatu is the most at-risk country for natural disasters.
Locals say they have seen increased rainfall, flooding, landslides, drought, and more intense and frequent cyclones in recent years. Just this year, Vanuatu has experienced two severe cyclones within the space of weeks.
For grower Charle David Nasu, from Lamtawekel on the volcanic Island of Tanna, growing kava has been an unrelenting labour of love.
Charle’s kava farm was at the epicenter of Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015, a category five system that killed 15 people and destroyed 96% of Vanuatu’s food crops.
The value of kava exports plummeted to VUV$180 million (US$148,000).
“After the cyclone, we have to collect branches that have been damaged, then we re-plant it,” Charle says.
“That’s where we bring back kava. It takes around three to four years.
Charle says his ancestors grew big and healthy kava crops, but climate change has meant the stems grow slower, and smaller, and lumps have formed on the roots affecting the quality.
“That usually comes when there is a lot of rain,” he says.
“Our farmers today, they face big problems growing kava.”
It is a familiar story at Port Resolution, home to generations of Werry Narua’s family who have witnessed the changes.
“I am regretting to see things have been changing a lot,” he says.
“On the sides of the cliffs here, [the] rising level of the ocean, that is pressuring a lot of the land and we have soil erosion.”
Changes in trade winds also affect communities living near volcanoes, such as Werry’s which overlooks the active Mount Yasur.
“If the ash and acid (rain) come over, they damage the crops,” he says.
Cyclones ‘root the whole plant out’
Despite the hardships, Joseph Brun says some farmers have learned inventive ways to make their crops more resilient to cyclones.
“[When] there’s a warning for cyclones, they have to chip all the branches out, so it can still [protect] itself,” he says.
“If the branches are laying down, the wind doesn’t destroy the whole plant,” he said.
Otherwise, the cyclone can “root the whole plant out.”
Joseph says the crop is planted on the “sloped side of higher land” so it faces the sunrise and sunset, but it means the crops are destroyed “every time a cyclone comes in”.
“It’s probably 95% destroyed and probably 5% that is still lying there … either going to die or shoot up again.”
Vanuatu’s guidelines suggest kava is grown over five years. While it is commonly harvested when mature, some farmers wait longer to grow bigger crops to sell.
When cyclones hit, destroying years of growth in a matter of days, it takes farmers years to rebuild, Joseph says.
Leading by example
Vanuatu has made bold policy commitments and continues to demand swift and decisive action on climate change by countries like Australia.
Last November at the COP27, the nation called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requesting an advisory opinion to inform states’ climate obligations, to protect climate-vulnerable countries like Vanuatu.
But back on the farm, dealing with temperatures “much hotter than before”, Charle says kava growers like him, and now his eldest son who has started helping on the farm, carry the burden on their own.
“People from Vanuatu are completely different. When we face problems, you cannot see that we are in them,” he says.
“We always like to resolve our problems ourselves, on our own, that’s our traditional ways.
“There should be help from somewhere to assist us,” Charle said.
At Port Resolution, Werry and his community have no choice but to continuously prepare, as best they can, for heavy rainfall, landslides, and cyclones.
“We have to find a way to live along with these types of activities that are affecting our village community here,” he says.
“I think it will keep on coming. It won’t stop.”
