Second National Roundtable Consultation on Developing Local Food Crops and Fisheries Value Chains Featured
Participating members at the House of Tonga at Mailetaha
5 September, 2019. The Minister for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF), Hon. Losaline Ma’asi opened the second National Roundtable consultation on Developing Local Food Crops and Fisheries Value Chains – A National Action Plan Tuesday morning 3 September morning, at the House of Tonga, Mailetaha.
The meeting aims to evaluate short-term progress made of the National Action Plan for local food crops and fisheries value chain development and agree on mid- and long-term actions for continuing the mainstreaming of priority interventions into national policy and programme processes as well as attracting and accessing funding.
Hon. Ma’asi emphasized the government’s support and the commitment of MAFF to the implementation of the Project – ‘Leveraging the Development of Local Food Crops and Fisheries Value Chains for Improved Nutrition and Sustainable Food Systems in the Pacific’ that is led by the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organization (PIPSO) in eight countries of the Pacific including Tonga.
“I am grateful for the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for the success they have made together with PIPSO to develop the Regional and the National Action Plan according to specific country’s needs.
With the overall goal, to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific island governments, farmer and private sector organizations, and sub-regional institutions to develop strategies and programmes, as well as mobilize finance, that can increase poor rural people’s access to nutritious and healthy food.”
“We want everyone in Tonga to have access to nutritious and healthy food. Grow local supply of fruits and vegetables; raise and supply of local meats to super-markets and local store; we want regulations/policies to be in place to control the local practices and imports of unhealthy food and even facilities to have the tests/evidence to reduce the unhealthy choices.
Our reaching out programmes to communities, the vulnerable groups, women, youths, farmers and fishers.
The need for finance as well as insurance when disasters occurred. I am glad for the consultation today to confirm our National Action Plan for the next 4 years.”
Tonga’s National Action Plan was formulated by a cross-section of national stakeholders who attended the Fiji Forum and has been reviewed and re-evaluated during the first National Stakeholder Consultation in December 2018.
It addresses the four key themes to tackle country-specific challenges in agribusiness and value chain development:
- Nutrition – Reduction in NCDs and increased income from investments in local food crops and fisheries value chain development
- Finance – Making farmers bank ready and banks farmer ready
- ICT – Robust Communication System for Growers
- Insurance – Robust Insurance Package for Farmers
Hon. Ma’asi said this National Action Plan prompts the similar work that has been developed around the National NCD Committee lead by the Ministry of Health, followed by the establishments of the Tonga Health Promotion Foundation.
“As Food is a major contributor to the health crisis, we hope to see the development of this work today to cover all the sector for food in Tonga.
The project is for 4 years and I want to see something beyond that, by having CTA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on board, we can work together and maybe this could lead to a National Food and Nutrition Promotion Foundation.”
Reps from relevant line ministries, Non-governmental organizations, private sector and development partners are attending the consultation.
- RNZI
