The contributions of Fiji’s agriculture sector to the economy has gradually expanded through the years, with the sector set to experience further growth as more emphasis and focus is to be placed on commercial agriculture through the Ministry of Agriculture’s 5-year Strategic Development Plan.  

This was highlighted by Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy during the Strategic Development Planning workshop in Nadi last week.

“The Strategic Development Plan is a very important document that is to pave the way towards the sustainable development and expansion of Fiji’s agriculture sector.”

Minister Reddy elaborated the role agriculture played in people’s livelihoods and that the drafting of a Strategic Development Plan would better place public sector resources for further expansion of the sector. 

“For small nations like Fiji, agriculture has a more important role to play because agriculture is one sector which looks after all those people who are in the interior and maritime zone. It is therefore very important that we have a development plan which ensures that Government resources are given to the agriculture sector adequately, as this resource allocation is made entirely towards improving the livelihoods of the people living in the interior, rural and maritime divisions who often tend to be forgotten in the mainstream development process.

“There needs to be a sector that creates surplus and the actual sector that can create surplus in a sustainable manner is the agriculture sector and it’s also very important that we diversify our economic base because as a small island country, we’re often subjected to shocks, internal and external, shocks that are within our control and shocks that are generated which are beyond our control,” he added.

Minister Reddy also highlighted the need for the development planning process to look at building resilience due to the risks involved in the agriculture sector. 

“The agriculture sector is also not immune to shocks, the agriculture sector has its own unique shocks, shocks from pest and diseases and now changes from the climatic conditions have a major impact. 

“The agriculture sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors as a result of climate change and it is in this regard that there are more priority objectives placed on strategic planning to ensure that the agriculture sector is able to build resilience to shocks arising from the increasing drastic climatic conditions. So to build resilience amongst societies, regions and countries, one way is to make our agriculture sector very strong, vibrant and diversified,” he added. 

Hon. Reddy also explained that the often quoted notion of the sector’s contribution to GDP declining over the years does not mean that the agriculture sector has not grown. There has been growth but not as significant as the other sectors. 

“All the growth and development in the non-agriculture sector, if you analyze it at the micro-level and you find out where the surplus has been acquired from, most of it you will see has been carried on from the agriculture sector, but one of the peculiarities of Fiji’s agriculture sector is the growth of Fiji’s agriculture sector coming on the back of small and semi-subsistence agriculture for so long, and that has discouraged young able-bodied people from seeing agriculture as a future,” added Hon. Reddy.

He reiterated that in order to drive the sector towards a more commercial basis, the need to capture the attention of young farmers was crucial, and for these farmers to view farming as a business. 

“What we need to do now is to move into commercial agriculture, to get commercial thinking and also we need to convince our young able-bodied people that agriculture can also be a business. The returns from agriculture can be much higher than returns in the formal employment sector and it is,” he said.

“That is something that we need to do, we need to market agriculture as a viable source of income,” said Hon. Reddy. 

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