Towards the Government’s drive for communities to take ownership of their agricultural and fisheries developments, three Talomua events were held consecutively on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of June, for three different communities in Satapuala, Aleisa Sisifo Women’s Committee and Magiagi.
On behalf of the Government, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Honourable Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt thanked the organizing committees of the three Talomua for successfully hosting their events. The Hon. Minister encouraged the value and importance of unity within each community and village in order to obtain positive returns from their planned activities for development.
The Hon. Minister reminded the three communities that as they develop the land for more crops and livestock to secure a consistent supply of agricultural produce, they should also be aware of the various pests and diseases with appropriate control measures. He also urged the villages and communities to support the ongoing efforts by the Ministry to eliminate the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle which remains a major threat to our coconut industry, as well as the Black Leaf Streak disease that continues to affect our banana plantations and the many other pests and diseases that affect our other major crops including taro.
In the Hon. Minister’s speech in each Talomua, he stated that “As part of the government’s focus on strengthening agricultural and fisheries developments across the communities in Samoa, a direct assistance approach of $1 million tala development fund will be made available for the district development efforts.”
Mr. Vaili Mimita of Satapuala, spoke on behalf of the village and requested the government for assistance in providing consignments for their crops and harvests for export. He added that the village are in need of more lands for agricultural developments and have now utilized part of the government lands in Satapuala for this purpose.
The Aleisa Women’s Committee representative relayed their request for improvements in access roads within the Aleisa farming areas. She stressed the importance of having proper access roads as the farming community in the Aleisa area has increased in number and farm sizes throughout the years.
The last Talomua event was held at Magiagi on Saturday in the afternoon. Mr. Luafau Tulima, village mayor for Magiagi thanked the government for their support and acknowledged the initiative of having district Talomua, for it has now enabled more farmers and fishers of various villages to partake actively and have ownership of their events. Mr.Tulima is one of the many successful farmers that have been working in collaboration with the Ministry for many years and a role model for most of the farmers in his village and Samoa.
As part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries’ assistance for communities and villages which hosted these events, planting materials as well as farming equipment and tools were provided for each of the three communities.
[ENDS]
