MINISTER WASI BRACES GG’S CALL FOR GOV’T TO PRIORITISE AGRICULTURE  

The Minister responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL), Honourable Franklyn Derek Wasi has welcomed the strong reminder and call by the Governor General His Excellency Rev. David Tiva Kapu for the government to prioritise agriculture through its development policies and, availing sufficient resources to the industry.

Minister Wasi said that this is to guarantee we make agriculture the economic backbone of our economic development.

The agriculture Minister was responding to the traditional speech from the throne in Parliament last week.

“Mr. Speaker Sir, the speech from His Excellency the Governor General, is exactly in line with what the ministry is pursuing under my leadership, and that of the Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT).”

Minister Wasi also took the opportunity and admitted in Parliament the numerous challenges his ministry continues to face which includes; technical gap among its cadre, an aging workforce, an outdated organizational and functional structure, a near absent extension services, lack of basic infrastructure, lack of reliable and affordable shipping services, a poorly resourced ministry over a very long time, lack of a clear development pathway and a lack of leadership at the ministry level among others.

However, Minister Wasi said that despite these challenges the GNUT government is in full agreement with His Excellency to resuscitate agriculture and make it not just as a platform for food production only, but also as a holistic platform for development in the Solomon Islands.

He added that in response to these many challenges and the call from His Excellency, the GNUT government has approved eight policy priorities for his ministry to implement in the coming years. These includes;

1. Organizational and functional restructuring
2. Legislative and Policy Reforms
3. Revitalizing the Agriculture Extension Services
4. Increase the export of commodities and value-added products
5. Diversification of agricultural production
6. Build research capacity in Agriculture through establishment of Agriculture Research Center
7. Make Agriculture attractive to all levels of society particularly our youths and resilient to climate change
8. Securing Solomon Islands flora and fauna against Invasive Alien Species (IAS) and facilitating access to markets.

“These eight broad policies may sound too many too little but, they are intertwined and interconnected, and will be implemented congruently.

“These broad policies were prioritized in recognition of our enormous potential in agriculture to drive the economic growth of our country.

“Once these policies are implemented, Solomon Islands is expected to achieve sustainable economic growth through; agriculture attractive across at all levels of society and making agriculture everyone’s business for long term sustenance of the sector and growing and strengthening the agriculture sector as the economic backbone for Solomon Islands,” he said.

Minister Wasi further said that GNUT through his ministry recognizes agriculture as the largest source for mass employment in the country, along with the fertile land that we have. “Hence, it is our endeavour to attract our youth population to venture into agriculture as a profit-making entity, while increasing food resilience at the same time.”

On these broad agriculture policies going forward, Hon. Minister Wasi explained that the first policy priority takes into consideration the change of time and age at which we now live.

“In order to respond effectively to the evolving needs of our population, the ministry has to address its technical gaps and establish clear decision-making mechanisms. Proper coordination of programs and projects, involving multi-stakeholders must also be in place that, we hope to achieve through the restructuring.”

On Policy and Legislative Reforms, Minister Wasi said the ministry has a lot of outdated acts and defunct laws. “Some of these include our Agriculture and Livestock Act of 1935, Bee Industry Act 1996, and the defunct Livestock Development Authority (Cap.41) 1977 (LDA 1977), to name just a few.

“For so long the ministry has had no cabinet-approved policy either, except the Agriculture Sector Growth Strategy and Investment Plan (ASGSIP 2021-2030), that was launched in 2021. Therefore, reforms on policies and legislation is paramount. These policies are intended to develop the sector to become the economic backbone of Solomon Islands by making it attractive at all levels of society for long term sustenance of our economic development.

“Another area we would want to address in our policy priorities is the poor state of our extension service that has not been effective for a long time now. This has hampered the productivity at the rural level. The intention now is to have the presence of our extension services in all our constituencies through collaborative and smart strategic approaches, with the use of digital technology.

“Recognizing our mass potential in agriculture in terms of employment and land fertility, my ministry aims to boost the Commercial Agriculture sector and thereby, increasing the export of commodities and value-added products,” the agriculture Minister expounded.

– MAL Press