Vanuatu is seeking further support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation to expand the production of climate resilience crops that would help generate income for farmers.
Prime Minister Charlot Salwai has also sought FAO’s assistance to build capacity in data collection and analysis with special regard to monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP).
The NSDP is a nationalization of the Sustainable Development Goals at the global level.
Salwai addressed a summit with the FAO in Rome last Saturday.
Vanuatu is particularly interested in climate resilience crops that will ensure food security especially post-disasters.
Salwai also urged FAO to provide Vanuatu with support to access the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and Global Climate Fund through project development and to ensure funds secured use a national established system.
He has also proposed that the UN agency tasked to defeat global hunger ensure that there is a fair quota in the recruitment system.
This will ensure that there is a fair representation from the Pacific Region in the organization.
Salwai said FAO needs to ensure that the experts who are allocated to the Pacific region have a wealth of expertise and familiar with the regional circumstances.
He said FAO should not send experts that have no experience of the region as the Pacific should not be a training ground but a region that requires the FAO to progress their agricultural issues and needs.
He thanked the FAO for its support and presence in Vanuatu over the past years.
“FAO’s presence in Vanuatu is a true manifestation of its commitment toward the Pacific Region,” he said.
Vanuatu is an agriculture-based economy where 80% of the population depends entirely on subsistence agriculture for their daily sustenance and well-being.
Although the other 20% reside in the urban areas, most people still rely on agricultural products from market centres for their daily source of nutrients.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Bio-security (MALFFB) has been actively involved in helping farmers increase their agriculture production.
Farmers have been given seeds and farming tools to increase their crop production.
There is also an emphasis on intercropping skills where farmers grow crops as well as maintain fish farms.
Photo supplied by Government of Vanuatu