THE Minister for Agriculture & Livestock (MAL) and Member of Parliament (MP) for East Makira, Franklyn Derek Wasi says the ministry is looking at supporting farmers to expand agricultural productions of spices and root crops to export directly to China.
The minister highlighted this in his keynote address to the people of Makira-Ulawa Province living in Honiara when they celebrated the 41st Second Appointed Day of their home province at the FOPA Village in Honiara more than a week ago.
“The Government for National Unity and Transformation’s (GNUT) is finalizing its Agriculture Consolidation Policy, which is currently in the draft form. We are looking at a validation workshop, which will be organized in the second or third week of August and by early September, the policy should be presented to Cabinet.
“This is a comprehensive policy that will provide mandatory agricultural activities and will be complemented by specific sub-sectors to make agriculture attractive across the wider demography and at all levels of the society,” Minister Wasi stressed.
He said MAL is looking at a sustainable financial scheme and will be advancing this scheme through a fixed service grant to boost cocoa and copra production to increase export volumes.
“We know Makira-Ulawa Province is a leading province in cocoa production, which will be a focal point for funding support,” Minister Wasi added.
Minister Wasi said, a SBD 5 million funding is available to support Makira-Ulawa Province farmers since the province is known as the leading supplier of cocoa.
He also stressed that MAL is also reviewing its agricultural extension services.
“We are looking at stationing our extension staff in all the constituencies to assist farmers with specific needs,” Minister Wasi said.
He also highlighted and outlined MAL’s intervention plans for the next four years.
“Our ministry will be looking at recruiting qualified personal and ongoing personal training, and recently MAL staff attended some trainings in China and MAL doctors are also at the Fiji National University (FNU) as part of a continuous training that will help build their capacity.
“We also looking at commercializing agriculture and recently, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with [China’s] Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences for commercial farming.
“We will start with commercial farming here at the Metapona Plains and we have all the machines here with us now and very soon, we can implement this initiative. So, we are back into commercial farming and other areas for research and development of agriculture in the country.”
Minister Wasi said MAL is also looking at reintroducing commercial rice farming in the country as well as the commercial farming peanut and root crops both for domestic consumption and exportation.
“The ministry is also collaborating with donors and other stakeholders to overcome resources and infrastructural challenges that we have.
“In our recent trip to China, I have signed the protocols of export of coffee from Solomon Islands to China for cocoa, Ginger and tumeric,” he added.
Minister Wasi also called on the people of Makira-Ulawa Province to realize their potential of utilizing their resources to help boost the growth of the agriculture to boost the national economy.
“If you do not have anything to do here in Honiara, I encourage you to go back home and cultivate your land for development,” he said.
By RAYMOND HULANGA
Solomon Star, Honiara.
