Praneeta Prakash 
The Ministry of Agriculture has acknowledged the need for better data-driven resource allocation and committed to prioritizing the development of underutilised agricultural land to strengthen national food security.
Permanent Secretary Andrew Tukana highlighted this before the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
Committee member Vijay Nath questioned the effectiveness of the current district-level distribution of government agricultural assistance.
“Valley Road is the major producer of fruit, vegetables, and Naitasiri, especially the Baulevu area; they are producers of root crops. The assistance given to them, probably like 22 grand, was equally divided. But if you want more production in these two fields, then I believe more assistance or guidance needs to be given to these two areas.”
Permanent Secretary Andrew Tukana acknowledged the gap in data currently hindering the ministry’s ability to justify and optimize budgetary allocations.
“There needs to be some data behind that and justification for why we’re giving them that amount of money and not this amount. So this is something that I’m getting our planning division to work on at the moment, and they are currently doing that now at this point before we can finalize our budget for the next financial year.”
He says they are committed to working with local farmers, research stations, and development agencies to unlock the full potential of available agricultural land.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
