NEWSPAGE 04 May
2011

(Photo: Make-A-Wish New Zealand)

NEW ZEALAND: Make-a-Wish New Zealand extending magic to the Pacific

(Photo: Samoa Tourism Authority)

SAMOA: Samoa Tourism Authority updates
Source: Samoa Tourism Authority Press Release

Samoa to have strong representation at BFTE 2011

Samoa will be well represented at the upcoming Bula Fiji Tourism Exchange (BFTE) that will take place in Fiji from 18-20 May 2011.

Samoa’s contingency will include: Samoa Tourism Authority, Aggie Grey’s Hotel & Bungalows as well as Aggie Grey’s Lagoon Beach Resort, Amanaki Hotel, Coconuts Beach Club & Resort, Hotel Insel Fehmarn, Lusia’s Lagoon Chalets, Manumea Hotel, Orator Hotel, Polynesian Xplorer, Samoa Scenic Tours and Inbound Services, Sinalei Reef Resort & Spa and Tanoa Tusitala Hotel.

Samoa’s group are well suited to attend the BFTE which is limited to bona fide wholesalers (buyers) and tourism operators (sellers) who represent hotels, resorts, transportation, inbound operators, airlines, activities and cruises etc. within the South Pacific.

The key emphasis for Samoa’s participation at the BFTE is on maintaining existing and developing new beneficial travel trade relations to facilitate the marketing and promotion of Samoa tourism products and services in source markets.

As the BFTE is a travel exchange where contractual and marketing arrangements are made between buyers and sellers, it will undoubtedly provide the Samoa group with an economical way to meet and contract with wholesalers to market and sell their products.

The buyers of what Samoa and other Pacific Islands have to offer, are confirmed from Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Germany, China and other countries with strong interest in the South Pacific.

Another important reason for Samoa to attend the event is because Exhibitions such as the BFTE provides a means of building the travel trade’s awareness and interest in Samoa as well as an overall confidence in the destination.

The Samoa group is expected to be in Fiji from the 16 May to allow them time to set up prior to the start of the Event.


Samoa Cultural Village provides ‘purposeful’ demonstrations

The Samoa Cultural Centre will be kept abuzz with various ‘purposeful’ demonstrations for the next couple of months.

The Samoa Tourism Authority and Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development are working closely together to provide various demonstrations that will not only draw the curious crowds but also provide benefits for those that are doing the demonstrations.

The demonstrations which range from Siapo (tapa cloth) making to Ie Sae (traditionally very fine) mat weaving to carving and carpentry, are set up, scheduled and on display at the Samoa Cultural Centre throughout the months of April and May 2011.

The multitude of reasons for carrying out these demonstrations include: providing a visual display and insight for tourists as to what Samoa has to offer in the form of handicrafts, weaving, printing (elei and screen), siapo making, and fine mat weaving, from beginning to the end of each finished item and product.

Also, the demonstrations provide an educational display for the local public that are willing to watch and learn the skills of our own people whose livelihood is dependent on these types of talents.

For the skilled demonstrators, the visual display of their talents is an opportunity for them not only to increase people’s awareness of their ability and skill.

This is a financially beneficial venture for the demonstrators also as they are able to sell the products that they have made and they are able to make a profit from their wares.

The Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development which is responsible for providing the people carrying out the demonstrations, is able to use this opportunity to encourage the participants alike to continue to enhance and utilise their skills in this, their own area of expertise. This is the opportune avenue also for MWCSD to further enhance programmes which they already have in place which encourage people in and around the country in different villages, to take up these types of skills as a way of earning a living for the family.

Samoa Tourism Authority benefits from this project through the display of this side of Samoa’s culture which visitors and Samoans alike are very interested in knowing more about.

The May 2011 demonstrations will run from 9.00am-4.00pm at the Cultural Centre daily, from 02-13 May.
 

(Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

AUSTRALIA: 1,000 Tongans seeking seasonal work in Australia
Source: Radio Australia

Australia's Pacific Seasonal Worker Scheme is gaining popularity, with some rural towns reporting a four-fold increase in the number of workers arriving.

Most have travelled from Tonga to northern Australia for jobs harvesting citrus.

The scheme, introduced in 2008, helps Australian farmers overcome labour shortages.

Sue Jenkin grows citrus and grapes in Queensland and told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat she made a special trip to Tonga to recruit staff.

"The benefit that the Pacific seasonal labour scheme has for us is that there's that option for people to keep returning year after year," she said.

"So in the end we'll have highly experienced people coming back year after year.

"That is the hope."

It's estimated almost 1000 Tongans are looking to travel to Australia to work under the Pacific Seasonal Worker Scheme.

Hundreds of people have already arrived in Australia in recent weeks to work on the citrus harvest, but many more are still hoping for a job.

And while it's unlikely that all Tonga's job seekers will find work, the demand for Pacific labour is expected to keep rising.

Photo Caption: Most workers have travelled from Tonga to northern Australia for jobs harvesting citrus.
 

(Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

USA: US donates $25m to Pacific obesity study
Source: Australia Network News

US authorities have given researchers a $US25 million dollar grant to study prevention of obesity in remote Pacific Islands and parts of Hawaii.

The five-year Department of Agriculture grant will fund research to be headed by the University of Hawaii, involving scientists from American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia and the Northern Marianas.

Professor Rachel Novotny from the University of Hawaii says those communities show high levels of obesity, leading to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

She's told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat the research can make a difference.

"If we can find some of the most salient factors in each community such as foods that are being imported, and maybe put some more support towards some local production, some of these sorts of things - the effect could be quite dramatic especially in these island communities with fewer inputs and outputs than some of the larger places," she said.

Photo Caption: Communities in the Pacific Islands and parts of Hawaii show high levels of obesity, leading to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
 

(Photo: Vanuatu Daily Post)

VANUATU: 2011 coffee harvest season opens on Tanna
Source: Vanuatu Daily Post

Following a recent field assessment and survey of this year’s up-coming coffee crop on Tanna, meetings were held over the past two week between all relevant stakeholders of the industry and it was decided that the 2011 coffee harvest season would officially open on Monday May 2.

The meetings were held with different coffee farmer representatives, government departments and Tanna Coffee management team and was aimed towards providing all stakeholders with the most up to date information on the current situation surrounding this year’s coffee crop.

As reported recently, Tanna Coffee and the TCDC Estate Landowners (who are the Lessee and Lessors of the TCDC Estate) announced a new re-development program was implemented on the company-owned property in the Middlebush area of Tanna Island and this 5-year program will be operated and managed from the centrally located Loupukas coffee processing centre.

This detailed program will see the eventual re-establishment of over 200 hectares of coffee trees being planted throughout the TCDC Estate and it will incorporate an agro-forestry approach, whereby other agricultural crops and trees will be planted amongst the coffee, providing the individual small-holder farmers with a greater diversification of short, medium and long-term income.

The spokesperson for the TCDC Estate Landowners Mr Benson Samuels said that all of the Estate Landowners are fully supportive of Tanna Coffee and are in favour of the newly-signed partnership agreement and beginning this year, they have now established a new Business Management Team (BMT) that will be operating a coffee buying, processing and marketing system from the TCDC Loupukas headquarters.

This team will provide support to all of the small-holder coffee farmers from within the TCDC Estate and also all of the other coffee farmers from the other surrounding villages. The BMT has now taken delivery of a new truck and will be operating a coffee cherry and dry coffee parchment collection, payment and transport system throughout the up-coming harvest season and this will not only support the farmers enormously, but will also encourage greater productivity from them as well.
Also beginning this year, there will be a new Small-holder farmer micro-credit facility operated by the BMT and this scheme (which is fully supported by TCDC), will enable the coffee farmers to borrow short-term amounts of money in the beginning of the harvest season and the loans can either be paid back by the cash money earned or it can be paid back in kind, through the delivery and sale of cherries or dry parchment.

The vital need for a micro-credit scheme was clearly identified as being an essential issue during the recent surveys and revealed a definite requirement for the farmers to have the ability of accessing small forms of credit that will enable them to hire additional labour to support initial clearing of their plantations (pre-harvest) and to also support the actual harvesting of their trees, which is very labour intensive.

Terry Adlington from Tanna Coffee said that he was looking forward to this year’s harvest season, as it was shaping up to be a bumper crop. He anticipated that the crop would probably exceed 60 tonne of dry parchment this year, which would not only provide around 15 million vatu annually to the TAFEA Provincial Government regional economy through direct farmer payments, but would also contribute an estimated 50 million vatu to the overall national economy as well. In terms of the provision of on-going assistance and support to the local Coffee Industry, Tanna Coffee will continue to operate from its main Loukatai Coffee Processing Centre as per previous years and in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, will now provide all registered small-holder coffee farmers with cost price materials and essential equipment and machinery through both of its Coffee Processing Centres.

Apparently, with the overall demand for Tanna Coffee still exceeding the ability to guarantee supply, it is very encouraging to note that with the continual expansion and development of the Vanuatu Coffee Industry, there is still ample land available and plenty of new farmers who are keen and willing to enter into the commercial aspects of this regional agricultural industry. There have also been some good and very positive results achieved with the trial plantings on Efate Island and according to the DARD extension officer Mr John Willie, plenty of new farmers are now planting coffee and this year’s anticipated harvest may be as high as 2 tons.

Therefore, if this positive direction continues to grow and the overall number of farmers and trees expands and develops further, there is every possibility that within the next 3-5 years, there could be annual production levels in excess of 200 tons and with these types of quantities available, the coffee sector would contribute even further towards both regional and national development and overall economic sustainability.
 

WORLDWIDE: Agro-meteorology can boost food security despite climate change
Source: United Nations Development Programme Press Release

“Food production in the Pacific need not decrease as a result of climate change. On the contrary, farmers armed with relevant weather pattern information can plan their food production and increase yields in the face of climate change.”

These are the words of Roger Eduardo Rivero Vega, a world renowned agro-meteorologist from the Cuban National Meteorology Institute (INSMET) and the lead trainer at the Workshop on Assessment of Climate Change Impacts in Agriculture that started today.

“You will learn about climate change modeling here and crop modeling, or the response of a crop in relation to the changing environment,” Mr Vega told participants, who are mainly agriculture experts or weather specialists from 13 Pacific Island countries -Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu; as well as representatives from East Timor and the Maldives.

The three week workshop is organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Centre in coordination with the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and with support from the Nadi Meteorology Service. It covers areas like climate change scenarios, climate change impact assessments, weather and climate forecasts for agriculture and the models that determine crop production based on climate change.

The SPC’s Acting Director Land Resources Division and Team Leader Land Management and Resources Policy delivered opening remarks at the workshop.

“The agricultural sector is especially significant for our islands, as so many of our citizens earn their living and feed their families from their plantations and gardens, but now we are increasingly witnessing the negative impacts of climate change in this sector. Given the urgent need to defend our livelihoods and ensure a modest yet dignified existence for our peoples, it is critical that we understand and manage these climate change impacts on our agriculture, and adjust our practices accordingly,” he said.

He urged the workshop participants to take full advantage of the knowledge and experiences shared by their counterparts and the trainers.

SPREP’s Dean Solofa reminded the participants that food security was a high priority for the Pacific.

“We need to provide more support to agriculture and increase food security through weather services. Meteorological services can provide a lot more to farmers than before,” he said.

At the end of the training, the agricultural and meteorological officers will be equipped with skills to better apply and disseminate weather and climate information for the benefit of the farming community. When farmers are armed with the knowledge of changing weather patterns, they can better plan their planting, and protect themselves from weather related losses and pests and diseases.

The workshop is an activity of UNDP’s “South-South Cooperation between Pacific and Caribbean Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management” project. The project is funded by UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation and the UNDP-Japan Partnership Fund, with in-kind contributions from UNDP Pacific Centre from where it is coordinated.