Food Security

“When we talk about sustainable farming system, we are referring to a farming system that we use that will help to ensure that there is high agricultural production, year after year,” Junior Salong, soil agronomist at the Vanuatu Department of Agriculture said.

ABC Radio Australia reports the system includes using crop rotation, alley cropping and contour cropping to help prevent soil erosion and landslides.

“These disasters always effect our farms but we have to put some practices in to help reduce the risk of these disasters damaging out crops,” Mr Salong said.

TORBA is currently Covid-free.

The Provincial Agriculture Officer (PAO) for TORBA, Peter Maho said they have short- term and long- term plans to be implemented should there be any community cases in the future.

“The DARD office in Sola, Vanua Lava, has plan to distribute vegetable seeds and vegetable seedling trays to the nine Area Councils (AC) of TORBA province to encourage farmers to continue to plant short- term crops at their backyards as well as long- term crops such as root crops.

In the Pacific, it's triggering what the aid organisation is calling a "pandemic of child malnutrition".

Researchers found that food prices have gone up significantly in many Pacific countries, including by nearly a third in Vanuatu.

There is also evidence that one in five Pacific households have been eating cheaper meals, or skipping some altogether, because they can no longer afford a healthy diet.

Flooded gardens in central Tanna mean vital crops are in short supply and many families have been told not to sell their produce at markets because of fears that families will go hungry.

Those fears have reached the capital, Port Vila.

Produce sales are the only source of income for Mary Jack, a mother of four who moved to Efate nine years ago.

“I always have some worry as to when the next disaster will strike to damage my crop and disturb my plants,” she said.

“What should I do with the money I am supposed to earn for school fees?”

In the second phase of the Tropical Cyclone (TC) Harold Livelihood Recovery Program for South Pentecost, the project team carried out a supervision mission to Ranwas, which is located in the Bunlap Zone.

A total of 516 people have benefited from the emergency Farm Field School program and through the establishment of two agroforestry nurseries, which have helped to improve and diversify the diets of the beneficiaries.

The officers are from the FAO’s Integrated Sustainable Land and Coastal Management (ISLCM) Project, Ministry of climate Change (MOCC) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity (MALFFB).

The ten-member team will be using the Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal (PRCA).

They will also Conduct Damage and Loss assessment following FAO procedures and using KOBOToolbox, meet with Customary Chiefs; Area secretariat members; NGO’s and communities and Plan activities/interventions that address immediate community livelihoods needs

Mr Seremaiah visited the farmers attending the training at Tagabe Agriculture Station and reiterated that the government’s policy is to increase production.

Most of the products that Vanuatu is currently importing can be grown and produced locally.

This was revealed by the minister to encourage the farmers to continue to till their land to increase production.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) highlighted the success of a farmer from Tanna who began planting rice three years ago.

Today, Nari Letaka of Lenaken Village in Middle Bush is providing rice as food for his family and selling rice locally.

Letaka said he has been growing the local rice he found in his garden, while weeding.

He said he believes that the seed of the rice plant comes from the seeds planted in 1970s rice programme.

The APEC economies have been urged to work together to waver the challenges and create opportunities for women participation in sustainable agriculture and fisheries for food security and revenue generation.

PNG delegate and Chief Livestock Advisor with the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Regina Nukundj, said women in agriculture and fisheries play an important role in supporting their households and communities.

Huffington Post i ripot olsem sampla long ol despla  kaikai em Sweet Potato oa Kumara, tapioka, taro, na yam em ol pipal blong Vanuatu isave kaikaim ol taem, tasol climate change iwok long mekim sampla long ol despla kaikai ino save grow gut.

Ministri blong  Agriculture nau iwok long mekim wok painimaut long sampla varieties oa kaen sweet potato em oli kisim long Fiji, Papua New Guinea na Solomon Islands em oli ting bai no nap bagarap long ol taem nogut olsem drought na ol cyclone.