PACIFIC ISLANDS RURAL AND AGRICULTURE STIMULUS FACILITY PROJECT 2021 LAUNCH.
Agriculture & Fisheries Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt
Susuga Roseti Imo, Taitai o le sauniga,
Honourable Associate Minister,
Her Excellency Emily Luck, Australian High Commissioner,
Members of the Diplomatic Corp,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to give the keynote address during the launch of Samoa’s component of the Pacific Islands Rural and Agriculture Stimulus Facility Project.
Samoa’s economy, like other Pacific Island Countries, has been devastated because of the impacts of COVID-19. The tourism industry, which is a significant revenue earner and employment generator for Samoa, has been severely affected and the impact has been felt by many of the micro, small and medium enterprises linked to the tourism industry. Thousands of people working directly and indirectly for the Tourism industry have lost their jobs.
The pandemic’s impacts has disrupted local and global supply chains, suspended international travel and reduced demand for exports. These disruptions has negatively affected agriculture, food and nutrition security in a variety of ways such as:
• exports by air freight are now facing massive marketing constraints since they often relied on passenger flights;
• direct sales to travellers and tourists commonly used to market locally produced products have been lost;
• the supply of food into Samoa has fluctuated due to the irregular shipments;
• cost of shipping in goods has also increased;
• cost of agriculture seeds, tools and equipment has increased and therefore affecting agriculture production and productivity.
The Government of Samoa have recognized the importance of agriculture as the backbone of an inclusive economy, and as a means of enhancing the economic resilience of its citizens. The pandemic has increased awareness of the important role that domestic food systems play in providing resilience to shocks, self-sufficiency, and insurance against food insecurity.
This mutual concern for a rapid recovery from the pandemic’s effects provides an opportunity for the Samoan Government and its development partners to work together to strengthen the resilience of domestic food systems for long term sustainability. This regional initiative through the PIRAS is timely as our focus in the region shifts from insulating ourselves from the pandemic towards economic recovery and resilience building.
I wish to acknowledge the steadfast support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Australia for partnering with our Government in this initiative. This PIRAS project comes at a crucial time to complement Government’s efforts in creating new and sustaining existing livelihoods for those severely impacted by the effects of the pandemic.
In any crisis, it is usually the vulnerable sections of our community who are affected. For this reason, the PIRAS project will target women and youth farmers in rural areas in Samoa. PIRAS complements our Government’s economic recovery initiatives by targeting those communities who are seen as the most vulnerable.
With the technical support of our Non-Government Organisations, Farmers Associations and our Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa as well as other agencies of our Government, PIRAS will support rural farmers through:
• Providing farmers with seedlings and planting materials for crops, livestock and fisheries;
• Provide tools, farming equipment and training to improve farm productivity;
• Providing food processing technologies and training to support post-harvest handling, food preservation and value adding;
• Establishing nurseries and demonstration plots;
• Provide training to farmers in crop and animal husbandry practices; and,
• Encouraging and expanding the use of mobile applications amongst farmers as medium for sharing market related information as well as creating awareness on issues and events.
I am pleased to note that data capture and knowledge sharing is also at the core of PIRAS. This will be driven by Regional Coordination Unit based out of IFAD’s Office in Fiji whose primary role shall be to engage in partnerships that ensure utilization-driven data is collected and fed into the country-level activities, and that these activities in turn generate quality data on outreach and targeting as well as verified progress data.
Finally, the cornerstone of this initiative is developing and sustaining strong partnerships at various levels – partnership at the community level where peer learning will be encouraged; partnership at the enterprise level between rural farmers and the private sector; partnership at the agency coordination level between government and non-government actors, including the private sector, and partnership at the strategic level between government and development partners.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it is only through harnessing our efforts collectively as one, do we have a greater chance of mitigating the negative impact from the pandemic, recover the losses we have borne over the past 2 years, whilst building more resilient systems that provide more sustainable livelihoods for our peoples in the future.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to officially launch the Pacific Islands Rural and Agricultural Stimulus Facility in Samoa and we look forward to the support of all stakeholders and partners present here today in its successful implementation.
Thank you & God Bless!
