The resilience of crop nurseries must be strengthened to ensure that Fiji has a growing agricultural sector that can provide food security.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama made this comment while opening a smart greenhouse nursery at Koronivia Research Station in Nausori yesterday.
“Nurseries play a dynamic role in Fiji’s horticultural development,” he said.
“They are where good quality seedlings are raised before being transferred to the field. We simply cannot do without them.”
Mr Bainimarama said Fiji was facing a huge challenge in the form of cyclones and other climate-driven events that were intensifying and “hitting our people hard every year”.
“These severe weather events can wipe out entire harvests, threatening the livelihoods of our farmers, driving up the price of food in the market, and hurting our economy.
“This nursery is a vital part of our long-term effort to ensure that Fiji has a food supply that cannot be unduly disrupted by climate change and extreme weather events, like the 14 cyclones that have struck us since 2016.
“Koronivia Research Station operates field nurseries where we conduct research on more than 60 crop varieties.
“But these field nurseries are directly exposed to extreme weather.”
He said 60 to 70 per cent of nursery planting materials were lost each time there was an extreme weather event.
“When that happens, we not only lose plants and have to replant, we also risk losing invaluable research that we have done that would allow us to ensure genetic variation or develop varieties of important crops that are more adaptable to the weather conditions we are facing.”
Mr Bainimarama said the total assistance package from the Canadian government for the construction of the Koronivia Smart Nursery and other associated activities was more than $330,000.
