Invest more on agriculture: Academic
Thursday September 06, 2007

An academic has urged the agriculture ministry to invest more on high value agriculture produces to assist in the recovery of the Fiji economy.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the USP Business and Economics Faculty yesterday, attended by fellow academics, researchers and the interim Agriculture Minister Jainend Kumar, University of the South Pacific (USP) Economics Professor Dr Kanhaiya Sharma said there is a lot of potential in some agricultural produces for Fiji's benefit, but these are yet to be fully exploited.

Pro Sharma said some of the high value agricultural produces include cocoa, coconut, mangoes, papaya, pineapples capsicums, tomatoes, root crops and livestock as well as fish products.

Basing on data collated from 1974 to 2004, Prof Sharma said produce like copra, sugarcane and rice were major agricultural exports during the 1970's and 1980's but had declined as much as 50 percent in copra's case.

He said Fiji needs to capitalise again on these as well as other high value products to boost the export industry.

"Demand for quality products is not a problem if we are competitive, it's only the supply which is a big question," he said.

Prof Sharma said the problems surrounding land tenure is the major hindrance against increasing agricultural productivity in Fiji.

He said expiring land leases and their non-renewal reduces the number of agriculture producers in Fiji. He adds that the land issues contribute to the "non-availability of credit" to farmers.

"Financial institutions are reluctant to lend to farmers due to lack of security in light of expiring land leases," Prof Sharma said.

He said that coupled with the shortage of labour, lack or proper irrigation as well as lacking agricultural research and support has aggravated the demise of the agricultural industry in Fiji.

Yet Prof Sharma said there was a high potential for Fiji to capitalise on the current demand of the high value agricultural crops as long as the authorities take definite steps to iron out hindrances to crop production and exports.

He said current strict quarantine protocols for exports to Australia, the European Union and the United States is another hindrance to the industry.

Prof Sharma said it takes around seven years to get agriculture protocols for Fiji that allows the export of fruit fly prone fruits and vegetables for export to these countries.

Interim Minister for Agriculture Kumar said he is "working hard to rectify" the hindarances to the industry.

He said while the reforms planned by this ministry "will take some time to bear fruit", he is optimistic that agriculture "will once again be the backbone of Fiji's export industry".