World Food Day - Minister thanks farmers and fishers for their ‘never say die’ attitude |16 October 2014

The Minister for Natural Resources Peter Sinon has extended a special gratitude to the farmers and fishermen for their hard work and their 'never say die' attitude.

“They have and continue to be our greatest motivator and we are here to serve their ambition and determination,” says the minister in his message on the occasion of World Food Day.

The full text of Minister Sinon’s message reads:
“For the 34th consecutive year, the Republic of Seychelles celebrates World Food Day as a member of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The organisation was founded 69 years ago on October 16, 1945 in Canada. This year’s celebration is under the theme: ‘Family farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth’. This theme provides us a lot of food for thought and the opportunity to raise the profile of family farming.

“In celebrating this event, it is appropriate to take a moment to reflect deeply on the unfortunate fate of 805 million people still suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition. On the flip side of this scenario, we are also witnessing untimely passing of those who over-indulge in the wrong foods. Those bring forth complicated so-called developed world cardiovascular and other diseases such as obesity.  The untimely passing due to excess consumption of unhealthy foods and drinks (alcohol) is a nation-wide concern in Seychelles. This happens amid a trend of more open markets and its consequences that persist unabated.
 
“The above scenario is particularly relevant to small island developing states (Sids) like Seychelles where food production through both agriculture and fisheries are predominantly a 'family affair' in both the intimate and broad sense of the word and concept.  Despite this emerging trend, the family structure remains today the singularly most universal social framework that without doubt significantly provides food for the growing world population. A cursory assessment of the importance of family farming worldwide provides evidence of its importance in sustaining food production and alleviating hunger.

“There are 500 million farm holdings globally out of which 98% of the farm holdings are family farms, the balance being large commercial multinationals.
About 56% of the global agricultural productions originate from family farms which also cultivate some 56% of the global arable land. Without doubt, the largest investors in the global agricultural sector are family farms.

“In Seychelles, family farming and environmental conservation are manifestly very strong attributes of the Seychelles’ development philosophy.  There are approximately 700 registered farmers on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue and each of those farming entities pivots on a household. Many of those farmers employ farm hands extra to those of family labour by virtue that they have reached commercial level of production beyond the capacity of family labour.
 
“The national agricultural survey programme otherwise known as the National Agricultural Census conducted between 2011 and 2013 under an FAO assisted project revealed concretely that some 8000 households (out of some 25,000) carry out some form of backyard farming which include the cultivation of fruit trees, vegetables and the keeping of livestock using entirely family labour. This is very much in keeping with what defines family farming.  The survey elucidated further that produce from the family farms contribute to household food security and in many cases bring additional revenue which sustains family livelihoods.  

“To date, agriculture still provides employment to about 3500 people, cultivating some 350 hectares under commercial production with possibly another 100 hectares being cultivated at the household level. Commercial farmers do benefit from policy environment and technical assistance provided for by the Agency with concessionary benefits on imported capital and spare-part equipment, as well as income-tax exemption through the Agriculture and Fisheries Incentives Act (2005).   

“Currently they are contributing some 6% of the national broiler meat consumption, 20% of the pork, 60-65% of the fresh fruit and vegetables and 100% of the table eggs. They exploit areas in which they have marginal comparative advantages and in consequence leave those items that fall outside of those areas to importation. The challenge is to safeguard those marginal comparative and competitive advantages. It is also to specialise as well as modernise the modes of production of those items that we do best.

“The profession is still being considered as a relatively low-paid, back-breaking hard job that is traditionally left to those that really do not have the choice of another alternative employ or economic activity. Thus the urgent need to revamp the Seychelles Agriculture and Horticulture Training Centre (SAHTC) and improve its intake as well as the graduates that it produces is long overdue. The approved project with the Kuwait Fund will in the near future begin to address this issue.

“As facilitator government is going to great lengths to create the enabling environment to bring agriculture to the mainstream of the business community. The introduction of the ‘Agriculture & Fisheries Development Insurance Scheme (ADFIS)’despite resistance to change and introduction of new practices that are initially seen as extra-costs, is the back-bone that will usher the sector as a mainstream business and stimulate credible arguments for an easier access to the elusive credit facilities that are the farmer’s worst nightmare. The scheme is being taken up slowly and it represents a significant foundation for a new generation of farm entities that will go beyond subsistence and the sales of surpluses to possible contract farming of healthy organic products of the hotels and restaurants that are today being supplied predominantly by imported products - and why not create a Seychelles brand that can be produced and processed for export and domestic consumption.  

“The current production environment is already benefiting from a number of initiatives, such as the IFAD’s support with the ‘Competitive Local Innovative for Small Scale Agriculture’ (Clissa). The project is apt, timely and being implemented. The FAO Country Programming Framework (CPF) provides agreed areas for FAO’s intervention in the national agricultural sector for the next three years. agro-forestry, agro-tourism, structural realignment of the ministry and the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) are projects on the table that have either already started or are on the way. The AfDB's 1 million USD grant for a detailed agricultural sector study having been very slow to take off, is forthcoming and will be a very important part of the platform for the revival. We have also reactivated the bilateral liaisons with friendly countries such as Cuba, Viet Nam, India and Sri Lanka and others that we are reopening and activating cooperation that we look to for mutually beneficial partnership and exchanges.

“However, the cornerstone to the sector's revival will be encapsulated in a comprehensive and costed 'Seychelles National Agricultural Investment Programme' (SNAIP) that represents the greatest lever to revolutionise the national agricultural sector, hence our family farming. This programme will be put to partners and potential investors of the sector in the first quarter of the New Year. We remain confident that its calling will be heard far and wide and many friends of the sector, both old and new would respond to the call. The rebirth of the sector then would implicitly be dependent on a further injection of resources in the sector.

“In the final analysis, it is with much conviction that one has to state that the fear that ‘agriculture may hinder the growth’ of more lucrative sectors such as tourism and fisheries as stated in the Strategy 2017 is in this day totally misplaced and uncalled for. Agriculture can only complement the more lucrative sectors by ensuring the supply of fresh, organic, safe, local, traceable and healthy domestic food products that we have traditionally produced in Seychelles.

“At the end of the day as with all humankind on planet earth – ‘we are what we eat’. By promoting and practicing sustainable organic agricultural practices we indeed feed ourselves and care for the earth our only home. In doing so, we need to continue safeguarding our pristine and relatively disease-free bio-secured environment that we enjoy compared to a number of our sister countries.
 
“Allow me to take this opportunity to thank all those who have and will contribute to the Food Week activities. As always it is also to the farmers and fishers that I extend a special gratitude to, for their hard work and their 'never say die' attitude. They have and continue to be our greatest motivator and we are here to serve their ambition and determination. Keep up the excellent work! “Wishing you all a reflective and happy World Food Day.”