Agriculture Ministry has ‘lost direction’

THE Ministry of Agriculture has lost direction and expertise, says Opposition member of Parliament Biman Prasad.

He said this while speaking on his motion that Parliament calling on the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs to assess the impact of direct initiatives to farmers in the agricultural sector and report back at the next sitting of Parliament.

“The service it provides to farmers has fallen in both quality and quantity,” he said.

“Like everything under this Government, it seems now to be focused on photo opportunities for the honourable minister and others.

“The honourable minister is constantly pictured as some so-called new initiative, making some grandiose announcements about new developments and new directions.

“That is fine, but what are the results. On the ground, there is very little to show, and that is why we are asking for this inquiry.

“The people of Fiji need to understand the truth versus talk.

“Unless we know what kind of impact is coming from these initiatives, we cannot do anything to improve it or change it.”

He said the cold hard reality was that the Government was unable to bring new practices and technology to agriculture to make Fiji more competitive.

“First, our local farmers cannot earn a decent living from supplying food locally because they cannot produce enough to cover the cost of getting their crops to the market.

“In many cases it is cheaper for supermarkets to import food than to buy it locally.

“The tragedy of our agriculture industry is that nothing seems to happen unless the minister turns up himself.

“He distributes some seeds here and addresses a meeting there, he supplies a tractor to some farmers here or new fencing material to farmers there and of course the army of government photographers and camera crew that go with him.

“But this is not agriculture, this is just politics with a bit of mud attached to it.”