Agriculture Show Goes North
The challenges facing the food system urgently needs to be addressed in order to successfully sustain the sector.
Minister for Fisheries Semi Koroilavesau made the commentwhile opening the Northern Division Agricultural show at Subrail Park, Labasa, yesterday.
He said the future food system needed to provide affordable and healthy diets for all and decent livelihoods for food system workers, while preserving natural resources, bio diversity and tackling challenges such as climate change.
Mr Koroilavesau said this year’s agriculture show’s theme “Grow, Nourish,Sustain Togetherour actions are our future ‘’ best describes the need for collaborating effort in ensuring the sustainability of agriculture in Fiji.
“More than 26,000 farmers in the Northern Division are contributors of two main commodities that highly influence Fiji’s agriculture sector,” he said.
“Dalo and yaqona both play a significant role in Fiji’s Gross Domestic Product and foreign exchange through exports.
“Vanilla and cocoa are also grown on a large scale in the North which has opportunities for expansion into the markets.
“There is an increase in the number of aging farmers, most young people today do not identify agriculture as an attractive career path, which has led the ministry to pursue initiatives to enhance youth and women participation in Agriculture.
Mr Koroilavesau said Fiji’s agriculture sector contributed $816.6m to national GDP in 2019 out of which $725.8m is just crop and livestock alone.
From January to June 2020, the crop and livestock sub sectors have recorded 15 per cent growth.
He said during COVID-19 there is an increase in the number of people international
Lucrative engaging in agricultural activities.
He said in the 2017 population census recorded 884,887persons in Fiji living in 193,196 households, out of which 61 per cent were still engaged in agricultural activities - crops, livestock and fishing.
Around 57 per cent of household members are engaged on crop and land tasks alone.
“This show has allowed us to recognise the need to support our food heros, farmers and workers throughout the food system, who are making sure that food makes its way from farm to fork even amid disruptions such as the pandemic,” Koroilavesau said.