More than 2,000 Agricultural COVID-19 Response Packages have been distributed to households in the country as part of the Government’s effort to ensure access to adequate food of acceptable quality and nutritional value.
This follows the announcement made by the Minister for Agriculture Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy on 18th March 2020, on the Ministry’s upscaling of initiatives as a direct response in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and as part of the first phase of the initiative saw the distribution of more than 2,000 packages for Home Gardening and 200 packages for the Farm Support initiative.
Head of Agricultural Operations and Services Dr. Vinesh Kumar said the Ministry was working on assisting Fijians have access to adequate food of acceptable quality and nutritional value during this global pandemic.
“The Ministry has begun with the distribution of these packages, and this includes 12 commodities for our Home Gardening packages and 14 for our Farm Support initiative, for which farmers have the option of choosing three from,” he said.
The Home Gardening initiative aims to provide home gardening packages to households in small towns and large municipalities.
“In this first round we are upscaling our home gardening targeting 5,000 households in urban and peri-urban communities and as of the 1st stage, we have distributed a total of 2,000 home gardening packages to the four divisions,” he said.
“For those that missed out in this phase of seed package distribution, we assure you that the second phase will begin within two weeks as the Ministry aims to support and ensure all households have adequate food as a precautionary measure,” he said.
The Farm Support program, which aims to boost the production of short-term crops on farms around Fiji is also being distributed.
“The distribution will be limited to 1/4 acre per crop whereby every farmer will be assisted with one [1] short-term crop for Farm Support in the first round, to a max of three rounds whilst for Home Gardening program the person should have at least 49 square meters of land.”
“We are also distributing Farm Support packages and the distributing officers are working on distributing at no cost to the farmers,” added Mr. Kumar.
The initiative will strengthen the national agriculture production to ensure self-sufficiency and resilience of the Fijian food system.
The distribution activities are supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), under the Pro-Resilient Fiji program funded by the European Union (EU), in the Ra province with the in-kind contribution of seedlings, planting material and logistic support to 1,800 beneficiaries in ten communities.
The response package was designed on the basis for the provision of access to nutritious and healthy foods and as a direct link to increasing the nation's food self-sufficiency, reducing the reliance on food imports and placing emphasis on restricted movement, which would promote the practicality of homegrown foods through home gardening.
Also, the Ministry of Agriculture distributed a total of seventeen seed packages to institutions identified by the Ministry of Women, Children & Poverty Alleviation.
Pearce Home officer-in-charge Ruci Kava said the institute was grateful to the Ministry of Agriculture for the timely assistance.
“These senior citizens are vulnerable to this COVID-19 pandemic and with this assistance, it will enable us to access food that is from our backyard thus being able to practice social distancing in limiting contact with other people,” said Ms. Kava.