- MINISTRY URGES FARMERS TO PRACTICE INTERCROPPING – In a bid to generate more income, Government is advising farmers around the country to carry out ‘inter cropping farming’.
- FIJI JOINS COLLECTIVE EFFORT FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES – Fiji’s drive towards climate change and risk management and the push for sustainable development goals “have been reprioritized and realigned”.
- MINISTRY STAFF CARRY OUT CORPORATE CLEANING ACTIVITIES – As part of the Ministry’s social corporate responsibility, management and staff of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Public Utilities (MWTPU) recently cleaned five elderly homes around the country together with the Loloma Home in Sabeto, Nadi and the Fiji Blind School Society in Vatuwaqa.
1 MINISTRY URGES FARMERS TO PRACTICE INTERCROPPING
In a bid to generate more income, Government is advising farmers around the country to carry out ‘inter cropping farming’.
Apart from planting sugar cane, farmers in the Western Division have been urged by the Ministry of Agriculture to grow other produce to supplement the income received from sugar cane.
This message was relayed to sugarcane farmers who participated at a recent field day held at Yako in Nadi. The day-long event organized by the Agriculture Ministry and the Sugar Research Institute was held to show farmers the advantages of intercropping.
Addressing the participants, the Ministry’s Agriculture Research director Miliakere Nawaikula said farmers should seriously look at intercropping technology as it will not only provide them with short term income but planting crops such as legumes, pulses will also improve soil fertility.
Ms Nawaikula said since sugarcane was a yearly crop, intercropping will assist farmers with some income and food security while they waited for their cane harvest,” she stated.
Sugar Research Institute of Fiji (SRIF) Research Officer Prem Naidu said the SRIF had established 150 intercropping trials in 2009 in Fiji which was funded by the European Union.
“Mr Naidu said the trials were basically to show farmers the benefits of intercropping and how other crops were planted together with sugarcane which apart from providing food and income security, it also improved soil fertility,” he said.
One of the farmers Mukesh Chand a practitioner of intercropping and on whose farm the field day was held said he has benefitted a lot from the technology of planting other crops with sugarcane.
“This inter-cropping does not involve a lot of work as no additional land is needed and I have seen positive outcomes,” he said.
“I have been practicing this and it has helped me a lot on my farm and my family.”
The Agriculture Research team from Legalega urged farmers to inter-crop with legumes and pulses such as Mung, Cowpea, Peanut and Pigeon Pea as these crops adapted well with the hot weather conditions which usually prevailed in the Western Division.
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2 FIJI JOINS COLLECTIVE EFFORT FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Fiji’s drive towards climate change and risk management and the push for sustainable development goals “have been reprioritized and realigned”.
This was relayed by the Minister for Rural and Maritime Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu while addressing participants at the 6th Session of the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management at Novotel in Suva this morning.
“We are currently reviewing our current disaster legislation and plans; but to make sure that all the relevant mechanics are in place for a resilient and sustainable future for our community,” Minister Seruiratu said.
“Fiji fully supports the proposed Strategy integrating climate change and disaster risk resilience (SRDP), as a successor to the Pacific Regional Framework for Climate Change, and the DRR Framework for Action,” Minister Seruiratu said.
The 6th Pacific Platform provides the region with a pivotal opportunity to shape disaster risk and climate change efforts for at least the next 20 years. It will seek to gain support for the draft Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP).
It will also seek support for the development of the Post- 2015 Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction which is to be endorsed at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Reduction (3WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan in March 2015.
“For us in the region the climate and disaster instruments are integrated and inseparable, unique to our island nature and the SRDP is the right approach to take us into the future,” he said.
“For Fiji, a good example of this integrated approach is the Vunidogoloa village disaster risk and climate change mitigation project where the government and the community work together relocating the whole community to higher ground, to reduce disaster risk and climate change effect and where sustainable growths and developments are promoted unhindered,” he said.
The United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Management Margareta Wahlstrom said the Pacific continues to demonstrate its “can do attitude” and strong leadership on disaster risk reduction and climate change.
“The Pacific was one of the first regions in the world to clearly foresee obvious links between climate change, disaster risk management and sustainable development policies and that no development can be sustainable without linking the three agendas together to be part of the same solution,” Mrs Wahlstorm said.
The three-day workshop will allow Pacific Island nations to discuss issues regarding building resilience towards disasters and contribute to the “New Pacific Plan Framework”.
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3 MINISTRY STAFF CARRY OUT CORPORATE CLEANING ACTIVITIES
As part of the Ministry’s social corporate responsibility, management and staff of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Public Utilities (MWTPU) recently cleaned five elderly homes around the country together with the Loloma Home in Sabeto, Nadi and the Fiji Blind School Society in Vatuwaqa.
Staff at the Ministry were mobilised into the following designated areas for the community clean-up program:
- Department of Works Northern at the Babasiga Ashram Old People’s Home in Labasa;
- Department of Works Western at the Golden Age Home in Lautoka;
- Fiji Meteorological Services, Nadi at the Loloma Home, Sabeto
- Department of Works Central/Eastern at Father Law Home in Lami;
- Department of Government Shipping Services at the Home of Compassion in Tamavua;
- Ministry Headquaters at the Senior Citizens Home in Samabula;
- Department of Water and Sewerage at the Fiji Blind School Society in Vatuwaqa
The clean up activity was made possible when the administrators of these institutions were approached for approval.
Meanwhile, the cleaning up program has encouraged teamwork amongst staff and it has also provided the Ministry an ideal opportunity to lend a helping hand to various institutions that provide assistance to underprivileged Fijians.
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