Farm teams up with conservation body to promote locally grown food |24 October 2014

Anse Royale-based Geffroy’s Farm has teamed up with Nature Seychelles, a leading local environmental conservation organisation, to promote locally grown food.

An agreement to that effect was signed yesterday between Nature Seychelles’ chief executive Nirmal Jivan Shah and the owner of the farm, Jean-Paul Geffroy.
The signing ceremony took place at the Nature Seychelles’ Sanctuary at Roche Caiman in the presence of the Minister for Natural Resources Peter Sinon, special advisor to the minister Antoine-Marie Moustache, Nature Seychelles’ board members, among other guests.

It was after the publication of the second edition of Nature Seychelles’ ‘Grow and Eat your own Food Seychelles’ book that Mr Geffroy approached Mr Shah with the intention of establishing a partnership to promote locally grown foods.

“As Seychellois we need to take a step back to go in the future as nowadays Seychellois are consuming too much bad food that our forefathers did not consume and are getting diseases that did not exist back then,” Minister Sinon said.

“Today’s signing is a typical example of this year’s World Food Day theme -- ‘Feeding the world, caring for the earth’. We see a private sector working together with an organisation to help conserve the organic food in the country,” added Minister Sinon.

Dr Shah said Mr Geffroy has taken an old concept and turn it into a new concept resulting in a smart way to approach agriculture in this century.

“I was very impressed with his farm when I visited it at Anse Royale; he has climate smart green house that can adapt to climate change,” noted Dr Shah.
During the ceremony Mr Geffroy gave Nature Seychelles a batch of seedlings so that they can be planted in the heritage garden.

“I am very excited and looking forward to working with Nature Seychelles. I was very impressed by the book and as a young entrepreneur and farmer who is starting to build a name for myself doing such gesture is a way for me to give back to society and Seychelles in general,” Mr Geffroy said.

Mr Geffroy is a self-taught farmer who uses eco-friendly farming methods at his farm at Anse Royale. Mr Geffroy is also on board the Miss Seychelles ...
Another World 2014 ‘Healthy Living’ project and he has recently signed an agreement to help the Ministry of Natural Resources rebuild its plant laboratory.