Editing Nauru (section)

=== Plants and farming ===
Historically, Indigenous Nauruans kept household gardens that provided much of the food that they needed through [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence farming]], with the most common food plants including coconuts, [[breadfruit]], bananas, [[pandanus]], [[papaya]], and [[guava]]s.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Thaman |first=Randolph |date=1992 |title=Vegetation of Nauru and the Gilbert Islands: Case Studies of poverty, Degradation, Disturbance, and Displacement |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/75dd4299-6eed-4e55-b9ee-c3949bf92cdb/content |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=128–158 |journal=Pacific Science |access-date=15 December 2022 |archive-date=6 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606052020/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/75dd4299-6eed-4e55-b9ee-c3949bf92cdb/content |url-status=live }}</ref> Because of the large immigrant population that would work in the phosphate mines, there were many types of fruits and vegetables grown that were staples in those countries as well.<ref name=":6" /> The soil in Nauru was very rich on what citizens call the "Topside", which is the raised phosphate plateau where the phosphate is mined from, and it was extremely fertile and great for growing crops.<ref name=":6" /> However, the area where most Nauruans live now, on the coastal ring on the island that hasn't been mined, the soil quality is among the poorest in the world, as it is shallow, alkaline, and has the coarse texture of the coral that surrounds it.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Morrison |first1=R.J. |last2=Manner |first2=H.I. |date=2005 |title=Pre-Mining Pattern of Soils on Nauru, Central Pacific |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10599049.pdf |journal=Pacific Science |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=523–540 |doi=10.1353/psc.2005.0050 |s2cid=45416184 |via=University of Hawai'i Press |access-date=15 December 2022 |archive-date=29 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129211111/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10599049.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last1=Clifford |first1=Martin J. |last2=Ali |first2=Saleem H. |last3=Matsubae |first3=Kazuyo |date=April 2019 |title=Mining, land restoration and sustainable development in isolated islands: An industrial ecology perspective on extractive transitions on Nauru |journal=Ambio |language=en |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=397–408 |doi=10.1007/s13280-018-1075-2 |issn=0044-7447 |pmc=6411803 |pmid=30076524}}</ref> In 2011, just 13% of households maintained a garden or were involved in growing crops.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |title=Nauru (NRU) - Demographics, Health & Infant Mortality |url=https://data.unicef.org/country/nru/ |access-date=2022-12-15 |website=UNICEF DATA |language=en-US |archive-date=8 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208161537/https://data.unicef.org/country/nru/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the soil that was on Nauru is now gone because of phosphate-mining activities, leaving people to import the soil that they need.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /> Ethnobotanical studies have indicated that the reduction in the types of plants that can be grown due to phosphate mining has significantly impacted the connection that Indigenous Nauruans feel to the land, as plants are a large part of their cultural identity and have many uses in their lives, with each plant having an average of seven uses within Pacific Island cultures.<ref name=":6" />