The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says the solution to Samoa’s taro woes are pretty simple, “Go farm harder.”
Tuilaepa admits there is decline in Samoa’s taro produce and offers a simple solution.
“There was a time Fiji took up all the markets for taro overseas, then their market crashed when disease struck, that’s when the door opened for us,” he said.
“You see, soon, we may get some diseases to our produce of our own as well, but right now, what we should do is work the land. We all know that most are just strutting at home not doing anything, while there is heaps of land that haven’t been used for plantation,” he added.
“There’s nothing else that compares to working,” he added.
Tuilaepa questioned the work of village mayors, whose sole responsibility is to observe and support local village farmers.
“There’s always cries calling out for better pay for village mayors, but if the decline in taro produce because of the lack of farms providing is the case, then it bears a question as to what the village mayors are doing,” he said.
At the moment, the cost of a 20kg bag of taro is sold at a little over 65 tala per kg.
Samoa’s biggest export market for taro is New Zealand.