A team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock paid a field visit to Honiara communities engaged in backyard farming, Friday.
Led by the Minister of Agriculture, Augustine Auga and his Permanent Secretary Jimi Saelea, the team visited nursery greenhouse sites around Honiara.
Sites visited were the backyard gardens component of the 2010 Agriculture and Non-Communicable Diseases Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Small Grant funded project.
Auga said he was pleased to note that such initiatives have been put in place to curb the increasing rate of non-communicable diseases.
“The Ministry of Agriculture recognises the importance of food security, safety and nutrition for all communities in the nation,” Auga said.
Honiara Agriculture extension office director, Michael Ho’ota said:
“The receiving communities were expected to produce healthy vegetables and fruit trees in the near future.”
The seven recipient communities within the three constituencies of Honiara were Riffle Range, Banana Valley greenhouse, Hapai greenhouse, Kaibia greenhouse, Feraladoa greenhouse, Naha valley greenhouse, and Baranamba greenhouse.
These were the sites visited.
The project was mainly for Honiara communities, and was a collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health; with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and the Taiwanese Technical Mission.
The recipient communities commended the initiative.
“We appreciate the projects and how they were implemented to us,” says the communities’ representative and chairperson for Banana Valley community, Timothy Kabe Fuifu.
The project targeted mainly schools, churches, Out of School Youths, Women Groups, and Settlements in Honiara involved in health, education and agriculture.
By CHARLEY PIRINGI
