The Minister for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) Franklyn Derek Wasi has met and held fruitful discussions with the Rome based Director General for UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), His Excellency Dr. Qu Dongyu.
This was during the 2024 Pacific SIDS Solutions Forum in Nadi, Fiji recently.
Its the first time for Minister Wasi to meet with the FAO Director General since he became the Minister for MAL.
During the meeting, MAL Minister thanked Dr. Qu for the many technical cooperation projects facilitated by FAO through the ministry.
Some of these projects include the Sustainable Transformation of Domestic Agri-food Systems (STODAS), One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) to address the whole value chain for cassava production, processing, marketing and consumption, the Hand In Hand Initiative (HIHI) focusing on poultry and coconut development and the Digital Village Initiative (DVI) where a solar powered digital hub and conference facility connected to internet is established in a community in Malaita for farmers to access agriculture and market related information.
Minister MAL further emphasized the need for the amplification of these projects and expand their coverage to reach many of our stakeholders in the rural areas.
Minister Wasi also requested FAO through the Director General to upgrade the status of the FAO Solomon Islands office to a fully-fledged country office to allow for full time FAO officers to be stationed in Solomon Islands to assist the ministry mobilize resources and strengthen its technical capacity needed to develop the agriculture sector.
In his response the Director General for FAO was pleased to meet the country’s MAL Minister, and pledged the full support of the organization to work closely with Solomon Islands and will ensure that the requests received from the ministry to develop the sector are positively considered and implemented as appropriate.
Minister Wasi was accompanied by Trevor Mahaga Minister for the Ministry of Environment (MECDM) and PS MAL Dr. samson Viulu during the meeting.
Minister MAL Hon. Wasi, Director General FAO Dr. Qu and Minister of Environment (MECDM) Hon. Trevor Mahaga.
