Page 19 - IB March 2021

Agriculture Agriculture

staff, improved study and R&D options, and scholarships and politically sensitive industry which even in its decimated
in the agricultural field for value adding technicians, state, fuels economic activity in parts of Fiji’s western divi-
food scientists, agronomists, plant scientists, soil tech- sion, hence continued government efforts to prop it up.
nicians, veterinarians and agroforestry scientists. Meanwhile one of Fiji’s most innovative agricultural produc-
• Young people need to be encouraged to look at agricul- ers is also its most problematic. The Grace Road group has
ture as a viable livelihood. employed technology and efficient farming methods to grow
It’s a long list, but farmers and agriculturalists say now is high quality produce, supply a large number of its own res-
the time to make these long overdue investments in time, taurants, and increasingly, produce value-added products like
training and innovation. dumplings, cookies and flours, but its South Korean leader
The Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) is is in jail for assault, imprisonment, fraud, and other crimes
one of the few national organisations focussed on agricultural committed in Fiji.
science. Its plans include establishment of a commercial unit, In PNG, Prime Minister James Marape has said he would
food innovation centre, drug analysis on biological samples, like the country to be known not just for its oil, gas and gold,
and an agriculture research division and recent work has in- but also as the “food basket of Asia.” A recent World Bank
cluded research into medicinal plants and food science, with economic outlook report however states that PNG’s agricul-
a view to combatting non-communicable diseases (NCDs). tural commodity experts declined by 9.2% year-on-year driven
In Fiji, the government conducted an agriculture census last by “lower export values for cocoa, coffee and logs, and only
February, with Agriculture Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy saying partially offset by higher receipts for palm oil exports.”
the information collected will allow it to “analyse and mea- And as with almost every aspect of life, climate change
sure the impact of its intervention across time.” The census too continues to thwart progress in the sector, as evidenced
results are yet to be released but it is likely to find that the by the damage wrought on crops and the impact on local
sugar industry, once Fiji’s biggest export earner, continues to produce prices this cyclone season.
leach farmers. “The sugarcane industry, to be frank, is a dying The challenge then remains for the Pacific’s agriculture sec-
industry. We, my grandfather was a sugarcane farmer, my fa- tor to move beyond subsistence while we have the opportu-
ther was a sugarcane farmer- very successful, and when it was nity. Farmers have had their say, but will they be heard?
my turn, we realised it was not economical,” said Ratu Livai
Tora on Reset Fiji. Sugar however, is a historically complex editor@islandsbusiness.com

MINORU NISHI ON BUSINESS DURING COVID

For farmers and producers like Ton- were on the verge of breaking the
ga’s Minoru Nishi, Managing Director record of exports last year and this
of Nishi Trading Company, COVID-19 thing happened. And government
has been a double-edged hoe. came to the table and we all worked
“Our exports actually increased in together very quickly to try and re-
terms of demand from the market, open the pathway… in one week we
and I didn’t expect that given there were able to get our first airfreight
is a worldwide pandemic,” Nishi told commercial flight of watermelon to
a Griffith Institute webinar on COVID New Zealand.”
and Pacific businesses recently. The level of cooperation was such
Nishi said the problem was, while that there was even a police escort
orders “were through the roof in of the watermelons to the airport
some areas of produce”, logistics says Nishi.
have become more challenging as “I think what COVID has done is
time has gone on. There have been force the stakeholders; government,
delays at borders and increased private sector and NGOs to talk to
freight costs have hit the bottom Tonga watermelon exports to New one another… and address some of
line. “The good thing for us was that Zealand—an important export crop—also these big issues.”
our exchange rate on exports was hit a snag last year when fruit flies were Nishi Enterprises, which is also a
on our side but that didn’t help with discovered in one shipment in Auckland. diversified company, is looking at
imports so there’s a lot of pros and “We had 1000 tonnes confirmed further value-added activities in its
cons,” Nishi said. orders for New Zealand alone and we agricultural business.

Islands Business, March 2021 19