Week-long activities to mark World Food Day |03 October 2013

A series of activities are being organised locally to mark this year’s World Food Day from October 14 to 20.

Details of what will be called the Seychelles Food Week were given yesterday during an interview at the Ministry of Natural Resources’ conference room Caravelle House.

Speaking to journalists, the ministry’s public relations and communications officer Udrah Brutus said the activities will be held under the international theme ‘Sustainable food systems for security and nutrition’ but more emphasis will be put on local food production.

“We are aiming to put more focus on our local food production, which includes our agriculture and fisheries sectors. We also want to include people with value-added products made locally such as pickles, jams, pastries, salted fish, among others,” she said.

On October 16, there will be a televised documentary programme on the agricultural and fisheries sectors.

There will be an open day at the Anse Boileau research centre on that day. A variety of fruit trees will be on sale at the centre’s nursery.

“We have started a project aimed at helping farmers to use telecommunications to exchange information.

 This will be officially launched there and an accord will be signed between the Seychelles Agricultural Agency and telecommunications company Airtel in regards to the project,” she said.

Miss Brutus added that there will be two main activities for the week which will be on October 19 and 20.

A special mass will be held at Bel Ombre on October 19 and all fishermen and farmers are invited to take part in this activity.

The mass will be followed by a bazaar at the district’s administration office where a wide range of local food products will be on sale.

On October 20, there will be a bazaar at the community centre Val d’Andorre where there will be a variety of fruits and vegetables as well as fish on sale.

“There is an ongoing project in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme so members of the public will also have the chance to view an exhibition which will be mounted at the centre,” she said.

“The Seychelles food security and nutrition policy will also be launched on that day.”

Farmers from Praslin will also be taking part in the Val d’Andorre activities, she added.

A week-long open day will be held at the newly opened soil and plant diagnostic laboratory at Grand Anse.

Schools across the country are advised to liaise with the Seychelles Agricultural Agency to make arrangements for students to visit the lab.