Mixed Reactions to Climate Change
Farmers have raised some challenges that they face such as some assistance that was promised to them has not been delivered. But that has not dampen their spirits into cultivating their land.
There is an unexpected response from communities in the Northern Division in when it comes to the effects of climate change.
Roko Tui Macuata Epeli Tabuarua and a team of seven volunteers from the Fiji Agriculture census are designated to cover the district of Wailevu, Macuata.
“Our team is looking into the district of Wailevu, we started from Dogoru and visited all the villages and settlements,” Mr Tabuarua said.
“We have now reached Wailevu village with a population of 480 spread into 80 households.
“We will be camping to reach out to Wailevu Village, Bucalevu, Vatudova and the nearby settlements such as Tabucola.
“We have noticed that there is an increase in the things being planted like sugarcane, yaqona, coconut, fruit trees and livestock, which is aiding the different effects of climate change.
“Many farmers are utilising the land well in regards to commercial farming despite the main problem that they face – the roads that lead up to the farms.
Challenges
Farmers have raised some challenges that they face such as some assistance that was promised to them has not been delivered. But that has not dampen their spirits into cultivating their land. Secondly, some community members receive us well while there has been a few cases of those who have not accepted us into their homes to conduct the interview.
Contradiction
Mr Tabuarua said questions raised on the effects of climate change had a surprising response. “Farmers have identified that in the past, there was so much dryness in the land, which affected the crops,” he said.
“The current rainy weather has brought more fertility to the soil and those plants that usually wither are in abundance.”
Ministry’s comment
Meanwhile, acting chief economist of the Ministry of Agriculture, Sera Bose, said agriculture census in Fiji was carried out every 10 years to provide a snapshot of agriculture sector.
“The FAC will be the fifth census in the series and this is the first census conducted on complete enumeration of all four sub-sectors of agriculture: crop (including sugarcane), Livestock, Fisheries (including Aquaculture) & Forestry,” Ms Bose said.
“All the other four earlier census were conducted on sample basis.” Ms Bose said data collection would cover all localities within the rural and part of peri urban area where agriculture activities were commonly practiced.
“It provides an opportunity to identify changes and trends occurring in the sector compared to previous Agriculture Census,” she said.
Ms Bose said this was the first time, whereby officers engaged will be using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) system through the use of tables for data collection.
“The adoption of this new technology in agriculture census will substantially improve the quality and transparency of data collected.”
“Agriculture statistics with this new device has now embark on a conception of a successful and sustainable statistical system,’ she said.
Ms Bose said Government had allocated $4.5 million to the Ministry of Agriculture funds the census.
The agriculture census is expected to cover 72,000 farming household around the country.