Agriculture sector

Traditionally, farmers have relied heavily on inherited farming knowledge and practices to establish and manage their farms. A major challenge for the industry remains timely access to the latest farming advice.

This innovative project hopes to connect farmers to the latest information and advisory services to help boost their productivity. The project will first undertake market research to determine the information needs of farmers across several regions in the country.

Greg Cornwall works for Pacific Islands Resort Consultants Ltd based in Nadi Fiji and he is in Samoa for the second Pacific Agribusiness Forum where discussions have focused on making tourism in Samoa a sustainable method of development by encouraging a link between the two sectors.

Cornwall says one of the ways of increasing the link is encouraging restaurants and hotels to buy local produce.

“The good thing about local produce is that the price is dropped, there’s no freight, no middle man and nothing extra behind your purchases,” said Cornwall.