BY TAVAKE SIMON HANA’AROA
183 Kava farmers in the weather coast region of Guadalcanal now have the knowledge capacity to enhance kava production and boosting agricultural economic activities in their region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) has reported.
This was made possible by the Guadalcanal Provincial Government (GPG) through its Agriculture Division which facilitated four-days of training from 17th – 21st August 2020.
The training aims to enrich Guadalcanal rural kava farmers’ capacity and boost economic activities in the province that was held recently (17th – 21st August 2020).
According to MAL in its media statement, the training was held at two separate wards – Wanderer Bay at Hauvalisi Ward in west Guadalcanal and Vatupuku Village, Duidui ward in South Guadalcanal and is focussed on theory, practice, and demonstration activities.
Chief Field Officer for Guadalcanal Province, Joseph Wotomaru as quoted in the media statement said the training was a success.
“This Kava intervention aims to increase the capacity of rural farmers and to support them to increase Kava production to boost agricultural economic activities hence, improving rural Livelihoods and ensuring food security in Guadalcanal.
“This kava program was developed in 2018 to increase kava production to alleviate poverty in the region – South Guadalcanal where the Solomon Islands Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted in 2012/2013 indicated that there were 24,000 people in Guadalcanal Province living below the poverty line.
“Our target is to cover 8 wards in South Guadalcanal with 6 pieces of training for 40 farmers per venue,” Mr. Wotomaru who was quoted in the statement said.
Besides the capacity exercise, farmers were also supported by planting materials and tools to increase their production.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock while commending GPG Agriculture Division for the successful training, it also pleased to support such exercise to boost farmer’s capacity, especially through training and demonstrations as well as capacity improvement in financial literacy.
The Statement further stated that the Extension Department within the Ministry has vowed to continue to facilitate support to the provinces to ensure such agricultural activities and training are effected to increase the capacity of rural farmers.
With the inclusion of the recent training – Wanderer Bay and Diudiu wards, it brings the number of training conducted to-date to six, including, Balo, Avuavu, Kuma, and Talise with 377 farmers so far trained and 47,957 kava bottoms planted according to data collected.
