Fiji makes 2021 Year of Coconut in efforts to ensure post-pandemic food security

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, November 25, 2020
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SUVA, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- A Fijian government official said on Wednesday that Fiji is making 2021 Year of Coconut in efforts to revive the industry which is significant to food security and people's livelihoods in the South Pacific island country.

While addressing the virtual 56th International Coconut Community session and ministerial meeting 2020, Fiji's Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary Ritesh Dass said that the move would help revitalize Fiji's coconut industry.

Dass said the COVID-19 pandemic has put Fiji's food systems under strain, increasingly challenging its capacity to guarantee food security and provide a profitable source of livelihoods for the people.

Reviving Fiji's coconut industry would help promote the use of coconut "for nutrition, health and wealth" for the Fijian people, he said, adding that a Fijian agriculture ministry initiative being carried out in response to COVID-19 and with a focus on long-term food security involved the distribution of coconut seedlings to households nationwide.

"This initiative will support ongoing activities by the Ministry of Agriculture such as planting and replanting of 1,000 hectares of coconuts, development of lucrative farming systems such as intercropping and mixed farming systems, promotion of innovative land use and farming techniques," and downstream processing of coconut by-products, among others, he said.

In the Pacific region, coconut is an important economic and subsistence crop. Pacific islanders make use of almost every part of the coconut tree as it is a major source of food, oil, fiber, and wood. Enditem

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