English: The Samoan Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Launches Food Security Project

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry launched their “Enhanced climate change resilience of production systems in the Pacific communities, and community nurseries” project in Sapapalii Savaii yesterday.

Commissioned by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and fully funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) this project aims at enhancing climate change resilience of food production systems at the community level. In total it is a USD $4 million project across 6 countries in the Pacific, Samoa being one of them.

The key note speech was given by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Honorable Le Mamea Ropati Mualia while the cutting of the ribbon to launch the project was done by Mr. Benjamin Harding of U.S. Embassy Apia. Representatives of Savaia-Lefaga village were also in attendance as this project involves the construction of seedling-source nurseries at both Sapapalii and Savaia.

The nurseries are a result of lengthy consultations with both villages on matters such as food availability, consumption history, and changing patterns in the weather and crop growth.

They contain a variety of traditional and new root crops, fruit trees, and garden vegetables, focusing on “climate ready” varieties, more resistant to drought and disease.