So that children and idiots don’t damage the crop and cause a famine…
I guess it takes a while to grow, so if the children damaged some each day they might damage more than the sum growth for the day…
There would be other ways to interfere with the crop … the taro may be growing with the help of irrigation. (for this purpose, irrigation is human intervention in the running flow of rain water… It could just be a low wall built around the edge of a wetland to increase the volume of water in it… )
If the irrigation system is damaged then what ?
Also, the population of the island may be increased by other activity that occurs there…
Your cause is not hopeless. I too had that same 4th grade geography book back in 1968. Then, a brief 14 years later I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia and found myself on that very atoll. It was truly a déjà vu experience. The island you are looking for is called Mokil (Mwoakilloa in the local language.) It is located approximately 90 miles east of Ponape (Pohnpei in the local language) which is the capital of Pohnpei State in the Federated States of Micronesia. The Federated States of Micronesia is part of the Caroline Islands group and is situated at approximately 7 degrees north latitude.
We used that book in fourth grade long after it had been superseded (1973-74) for the Ecuador story. I remember thinking how dated it seemed compared to our regular social studies book.
