FAO opens office in Fiji

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) marked a milestone in its 46-year relationship with Fiji by opening its first local office yesterday. FAO's establishment in Fiji comes at a time when the country is facing challenges in food security after Severe TC Winston and Minister for Agriculture Inia Seruiratu acknowledged this fact."For us now as we are transitioning from humanitarian assistance and relief efforts into recovery and long-term reconstruction, we want to seize this opportunity particularly in terms of agriculture on the livelihoods and the economic wellbeing of our people."Most of our rural Fijians, their livelihood is agriculture and we fix agriculture and we will address most of the socioeconomic issues that we face in Fiji." Mr Seruiratu said Fiji and the FAO had collaborated in many areas and they looked forward to the organisation assisting with Fiji's efforts in the modernisation and industrialisation of the agriculture industry. He said Fiji also wanted to restore the agriculture industry and contribute to addressing issues of food security around the world."Yesterday we had a meeting with ITC (International Trade Centre) and we want to get back to our markets and we need to address the issues of consistency and reliability and supply, the volume and quality so that we can again be competitive and contribute towards the worrying issues on food security and of course the economic wellbeing of Fiji." FAO sub-regional co-ordinator Gavin Wall said FAO and the Government had co-operated in almost every area of FAO's endeavour. "The opening of this office offers an opportunity to strengthen the association in what is a two flow of benefits," Mr Wall said. "We believe that FAO can contribute to the advancement of the agricultural sectors of Fiji and also with its management of its natural resources." Mr Wall said FAO also looked forward to a greater contribution from Fiji towards the challenges facing the Pacific and global food systems.

Source: fijitimes.com
Full Article: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=348667