2 weeks Ago By Moffat Mamu
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) has secured and is anticipating to receive a funding support of USD$19.8 million (SBD165m) soon from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). This is made possible through the Agricultural Investment for Markets and Nutrition project (AIM-N) and will be financed through grant ($10.
8M) and loan ($9M). Minister for MAL Honourable Franklyn Derek Wasi revealed in Parliament recently. “The final major project (for 2024) that we will soon receive is from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
“It is called the Agricultural Investment for Markets and Nutrition project or AIM-N in short. It is worth around USD$19.8 million also financed through grant ($10.
8M) and loan ($9M). It is expected to commence before end of the year, for the next six years. “This project mostly will cover Western, Choiseul and Isabel provinces.
This project will provide direct funding to our rural farmers and stakeholders involved in the sector,” Minister Wasi said when informing Parliament on the donor funded projects being implemented through his ministry (MAL). He also added that has been very fortunate to receive a total funding of US$15 million from World Bank for the Solomon Islands Agriculture Rural Transformation (SIART) project. This project is financed through grant and loan arrangements.
It commenced in 2022 and will lapse in 2026. The project mainly focuses on Guadalcanal, Makira and Malaita provinces and targets all subsectors in agriculture except, cattle, kava and betelnut. Due to the stringent measures imposed by the World Bank office in New York and the lack of capacity within the ministry to implement such a large project, we have been slow to roll it out but we are now picking up speed.
This project focuses on building the capability of rural farm associations to increase agricultural production and improve market access in selected value chains, he said. He highlighted, the project will shortly enter into grant agreements with twenty grantees, each of whom will receive between $220,000 and $440,000 from the three provinces. The ministry is further fortunate to have another ongoing project through Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called STODAS.
It stands for Sustainable Transformation of Domestic Agrifood Systems. This is a fully grant based project, worth around USD$3 million and will end in 2026. He also told parliament that, although the ministry is receiving these huge funding support from its multilateral organizations, they do come with their own strict requirements and some of these are not properly designed at the start, coupled with their own inefficiencies such as lack of clear coordination guidelines among these different projects, and so, they do not necessarily solve many of the country’s existing challenges.
“And if they do, it will be some years later that we will slowly come to appreciate their successes,” Minister Wasi underscored. Meanwhile, the Minister said the Ministry recognizes its own shortcomings and challenges therefore, they are working closely together to overcome many of them thereby, grow our agriculture to become resilient and attractive to our citizens. “Only then, we should be able to effectively engage our rural people to go into agriculture production and agribusiness, and move away from bombarding members of Parliament for assistance.
“And to start with, GNUT government is expected to increase the budget allocation for my ministry in the financial year 2025 budget. “There is huge potential in the agriculture sector and as the minister for MAL, I will ensure that GNUT government places the highest priority in agriculture in terms of providing resources among others.” He assured that he will ensure that his technical officers in the ministry take to heart the policy priorities of GNUT government and implement them accordingly.
He added that as a responsible Minister, he will give his full assurance to the people of Solomon Islands that agriculture is and will be on the rise and our people will see a new dawn. “The Ministry will strive to implement a long-term sustainable development of our agriculture sector, by making it attractive to our youths and shifting from being a food production base only to becoming a profit-making entity as well. “Through these new approaches, we hope to make agriculture the business for everyone in order to make it the economic backbone of Solomon Islands,” Minister Wasi said.
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