Monday, 2 December 2013

Merging Information for Strategy Planning

FAO in collaboration with the Department arranged a workshop for the Department and its stakeholders in planning strategies for the Department for the next 10 years, 2014 – 2023. The 3 day workshop was funded by FAO and was consulted by two FAO officers; one is from the FAO office in Suva, the other is a local consultant.

The main goal of the workshop is to create strategies and developing models to enhance food security purposes and to attain and sustain the livelihoods and dietary health of the indigenous in rural and urban level. Involve in the workshop are officers from various departments, local farmers and representatives from the private sector, which in turn play vital roles in sharing ideas and information during the workshop

The Department in its development have few powers and resources to achieve its key policies objectives in the Te Kakeega II, but should have to explore the possibility of creating a network for coordinating and harmonizing initiatives on achieving its key policies through agreements or memoranda of understanding.

Concerning the Departments Priorities and Strategies according to the Te Kakeega II,The development of agriculture in Tuvalu must confront many fundamental issues and challenges. Among them poor soils and growing conditions, small land areas, few comparative advantages, decline outer island populations, increasing urbanisation, declining interest in traditional agriculture practices, distance to export markets, and poor local market access for those who do wish to produce cash crops. Nonetheless, there is still considerable scope for increasing production for local consumption and reversing recent production declines. Key challenges will be to revitalise and expand agriculture extension services, encourage people to once again turn to local rather than imported foods for better nutrition health, and improve transport and marketing of local produce.” (GOVERNMENT, 2005)

In order to achieve the mentioned challenges, the Department to my own extent must have the ability to identify its key players and to have better reporting which I recommend the Mobile Phone Reporting to communicate amongst stakeholders. Since there have been mobile development in Tuvalu, to link the farmers together with the market, extension officers and the Department, the setup of this Mobile Phone Reporting might be another way to execute the priorities and strategies for Tuvalu until 2023. The department must promote this phone reporting and prioritize it because it can contribute in the long run for the next 10 years.

2 comments:


  1. the other thing the department should prioritize is to put down the jotted points of the plan that was discussed into work and practice. But would be better if our community is trained only to the basic skills so that the communication among them would be hardly carried out. Concerning the mobile phone reporting, yes i agree that this system should be established so that farmers can connect with customer to negotiate their products and their price, together with Agriculture Extension Officers for assisting and advice about the quality of the framers products. This is so important because it determine the quality of the product from transportation from the farm to the market and then to the customers hand......great job bro on Merging Information for Strategy Planning

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  2. Agree to you Iosia. There have been many collaborative workshops and meetings to improve our food security but lesser work is seen carried out on the field. I believe the only way we can put our words to the task is by sacrificing our time to the field and educate our communities so that they can rely on their own for basic information about agriculture and livestock management.

    That phone reporting will be introduce later mid March this year, but yes will be benefitted to farmers, Agriculture officials, the consumers and Producers in discussing their price and product to be sell. It will be pushed to force to be involved in the Department strategic Planning for the next 10 years

    Thank You Iosia for the contribution

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