In a bid to increase agricultural awareness among the citizens of the country, Government is in discussion with its development partners in trying to pave the way forward.
According to Minister for Primary Industries, Joketani Cokanasiga, a number of important discussions have been reached which will be pursued in the coming years.
“First, is to strengthen policy, legal, and regulatory framework for sustainable agriculture. In other words we will have to pursue with determination the issues of institutional strengthening to be able to match the demons of development,” said Mr Cokanasiga.
“Second, to increase production, productivity and resilience of crops and livestock systems and which means improving our genetics for our livestock and upgrading and strengthening of our research and developmental activities as well as our bio-security issues.”
“Third, is the sustainable management of our resources and this also calls into play the issues of institutional strengthening, governance and accountability,” Cokanasiga said.
These priorities are meant to ensure that Fiji is served by a thriving agriculture sector that sustains Fiji’s food security and sets a strong platform for commercial agriculture development.
“In essence what this mean is we need to maintain agriculture contribution to GDP at 12%; increase the value of non sugar agriculture export from $52.9m to $80m by 2014; reduce fruits & vegetables imports from $165m-to $80m and increase locally produced export & import commodities by 30 percent,” added Mr Cokanasiga.
“The initiative of the current government is to develop agriculture to a more vibrant income generating and source of employment for the young generation in Fiji in future. Thus agriculture should continue to expand and lay the main foundation in the growth and stability of Fiji’s economy in the years to come.”
He went on to say that a current perspective is the push for commercial agriculture.
“The major contributors to agriculture exports are fruits (pawpaw) and vegetables, including dalo and ginger. A small but growing volume of certified organic products, including coconut and fruit products and nutriceuticals are exported,” he said.
However, growth in the sector has been highly variable.
Avenues to encourage commercial agriculture are being pursued.
Mr Cokanasiga also added that another area being pursued is off-farm livelihood.
“The informal off-farm sector is not yet well developed in Fiji either in rural or urban areas. The institutional framework for small enterprise development is being further developed and existing capacities for small enterprise development, although limited, is being strengthened.”
“This is a very important part of our Extension activities- the informal or subsistence agriculture is important because it provides food security and sustenance for majority of our people.”
This is an important reform in the current thrust in agricultural development.
For the period 2010 and 2014, Government aims to reduce drastically the total import bill for rice, potatoes, dairy, sheep and beef by $105m.
“We also intend to raise our exports of root crops such as dalo and cassava, fruits and vegetables, ginger and kava significantly during this period.”
“This demand and market driven approach will help address constraints in each step in the supply chain and calls for partnerships amongst stakeholders and encourages their participation in the planning and formulation of project priorities that should lead to greater sense of ownership and eventually successful implementation of agricultural development projects.”
Given these policy changes, the Department of Agriculture will launch the National Crops and Livestock Council and a National Agriculture Research Council in the Agriculture Show in Suva this week.
These two councils will spearhead the drive and development of Fiji’s agriculture sector in the future and will include all stakeholders including the farmers, importers, exporters, processors and Government.