Food Security in the South Pacific Island Countries with Special Reference to the Fiji Islands
نویسنده
چکیده
This paper analyses the status of food security in selected South Pacific Island countries, namely Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu at the national and household levels during the period 1991-2002. Due to narrow resource base and production conditions, Pacific Islands concentrate on a few primary commodities for production and exports. During recent years import dependency for food items has increased mainly due to a decline in per capita food production and a rapid rate of rural-urban migration. Currently, export earnings can finance food imports but earnings could fall short of the requirements needed after the expiry of some commodity preferential price agreements with importing countries. National food security is dependent on the continuation of subsistence farming and tapping ocean resources in conjunction with the on-going commercial farming of those crops in which Pacific Islands have a comparative advantage. Increased productivity is crucial for improving agricultural performance through government investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension, irrigation and appropriate price incentives. This would also help alleviate poverty for improvement in economic accessibility of food by households. There is also a need to design appropriate disaster risk management programmes to minimize any adverse effects on the food supply.
منابع مشابه
State of Food Security and Nutrition in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
The most recent data of FAO indicates that many of the SIDS Islands have achieved undernourishment levels of less than 5 percent, Barbados, Cuba and Dominica in the Caribbean; Fiji, Samoa and Kiribati in the Pacific. Countries such as: Dominican Republic, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Cuba from the Caribbean; Samoa from the Pacific; and São Tomé e Príncipe from the Africa, Indian Ocean, Me...
متن کاملTraditional Coping Strategies and Disaster Response: Examples from the South Pacific Region
The Pacific Islands are vulnerable to climate change and increased risk of disasters not only because of their isolated and often low lying geographical setting but because of their economic status which renders them reliant on donor support. In a qualitative study exploring the adaptive capacity of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) across four countries, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, i...
متن کاملSustainability of leprosy services in South Pacific Islands: the Kiribati experience.
A WHO workshop on the theme of sustainability of leprosy services in the Island States in the South Pacific was held in Fiji, from the 10th to the 12th May 2010. Among the countries invited to attend the workshop were the only three states in the WHO Western Pacific Region still above the point of elimination of leprosy, namely the FSM (Federated Sates of Micronesia), the Marshall Islands and K...
متن کاملFood Sovereignty for Poor Countries in the Global Trading System
I would like to thank the Colloquia Committee of Loyola University College of Law for inviting me to give this year’s Brendan Brown Lecture. I am honored to join a very distinguished list of prior lecturers. My lecture was inspired by my visit to the South Pacific on a United Nations mission in the summer of 2010. I travelled to Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. Each of these countries co...
متن کاملHealth Impacts of Climate Change in Pacific Island Countries: A Regional Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Priorities
BACKGROUND Between 2010 and 2012, the World Health Organization Division of Pacific Technical Support led a regional climate change and health vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning project, in collaboration with health sector partners, in 13 Pacific island countries-Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Isla...
متن کامل