Professional skills development workshop for Vanuatu agriculture extension officers

The Vanuatu Agriculture Extension Department has conducted Professional Skills Development at the Agriculture College in Santo.

When opening the training, Principal Agriculture Officer North, Charity Alick, who spoke on behalf of the Director of Agriculture, Antoine Ravo, stated that it was an important workshop for agriculture officers to share ideas and learn from each other to improve the sector's performance towards farmers and stakeholders.

Ms Alick says it is the Director's belief that agriculture can do more to serve farmers and stakeholders, despite existing challenges being faced.

"Under the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP), it highlights our major role as a Department, and that is to; Increase primary production of key food and cash crops through our extension service, Increase agricultural food production using sustainable practices to ensure sufficient access to affordable and nutritious food, and ensure all people have access to government service.

"To ensure that we achieve the NSDP pillars, we need to have qualified and competent agriculture workforce, and that is one of our main objectives under the National Agriculture Sector Policy.

"Hence, the purpose of our meeting this week is to continue to develop our skills at all levels of our duties and responsibilities."

Director Ravo says by the end of this year he wants to see productive changes to what officers are doing on their day to day programmes and activities, which should reflect in the output of farmers, which should be results-based.

The Director says a key performance indicator for the forum is to establish a more dynamic workforce over the next two to three years that show good management and leadership skills to coordinate programmes and activities effectively.

This would involve interaction with local, regional and international partners.

The Director thanked all agriculture officers for the work they have done in the past months.

The workshop on Santo was run in partnership with Vanuatu Skills for Partnership (VSP).

Photo supplied Caption: Agriculture Officers during the training

     

Author: 
Tensly Sumbe