World Food Day - ‘Let’s work towards a more food secure Seychelles’ |16 October 2017

“As we celebrate this year’s World Food Day, we should take time to reflect of the many tasks ahead of us towards the ultimate goal of a more food secure Seychelles.”

This comes in a message from the Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture Pamela Charlette on the occasion of World Food Day today.

The full text of Minister Charlette’s message reads:

“Today Seychelles joins other member states of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations around the world to celebrate World Food Day 2017 under the theme ‘Change the future of migration: Invest in food security and rural development’. This theme underpins the aspiration and principal goal of our organisation to achieve ‘Zero Hunger:  A world free from hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty’. 

“The world’s hungry count more than 800 million individuals dispersed across the globe, with a high percentage of those afflicted in Africa south of the Sahara. Migration is a phenomenon which is foreign to our shores but gained great significance in the last few years, prompted by a combination of civil strife and unrest, the purging of ethnic groups within some countries as well as a voluntary move towards perceptibly greener pastures. The mass migration from Middle East and North Africa into Europe throughout 2016 attests to this unspeakable fact.

The World Food Day celebrations every year sensitises us on our multifaceted attempt to address the issues of food security and nutrition which have very peculiar significance in a small island developing state (Sids) like the Seychelles.  It heightens our awareness of the opportunities at hand to move forward towards a more food secure future with due consideration for the aspects of good nutrition although the challenges are many.

“Seychelles has a high external dependence on food. It imports 80% by weight of the food it consumes in the face of an ever increasing demand.  This adds to the Seychelles’ vulnerability index for which most Sids find difficulty to get the world to buy-in.

“The counter measures of over dependence on external food supplies are two-folds. One is to produce as much locally to further minimise imports through efforts of increased national production for wholesome and nutrition foods. The other is the import of more nutritious foods to minimise the all too obvious consequences of eating unhealthily.

“There is a national effort to increase national food production with a view to providing more nutritious foods. Government’s support through financial resources have set the pace for much needed renovation of agricultural and fisheries facilities, supplies, equipment and additional technical personnel to fortify the ability to render services to fishers and farmers.

“The Livestock Trust Fund and the Public Sector Investment Plan fund of government have produced noticeable results in both soft and hard structures in the agricultural sector.  The infrastructure fund will serve both the agricultural and the fisheries sectors to revamp or even build new sector related infrastructure. The Emergency Plan approved by Cabinet on September 6, 2017 provides for resources to address specific issues in the fishing and the farming sectors.

External assistance from Clissa of Ifad, the FAO and the EU, Comesa, SADC and the many bilateral cooperation agreements contribute to both food producing sectors. The formulation and launch of new policies has provided both new and clearer paths for action, while institutional reforms in both sectors aim for operations efficiency gain. The end results of the external assistance inevitably add to the cause for further celebrations.

“As we celebrate this year’s World Food Day, we should take time to reflect of the many tasks ahead of us towards this ultimate goal of a more food secure Seychelles. In order for us to be successful each one of us must adopt a specific role and must assume the ultimate responsibility. Evidently, in our diverse roles we should move towards the same set of objectives: a more food and nutrition secure Seychelles.

“Happy World Food Day celebrations!”