14 May 2019

Crop insurance on agenda at Pacific workshop in Fiji

4:41 pm on 14 May 2019

The risk weather poses to food security, and insurance against crop loss were high on the agenda at a regional workshop in Fiji.

UNDP supported programme in Vanuatu to share farming techniques to improve resilience to climate change. Aug 2015.

Photo: Supplied/ UNDP

Last week 80 people from the agriculture and fisheries sector met to explore how businesses in the primary sector could better access financial services.

Government, community and development partners were joined by financiers, farmers and fishers.

The leader of the European Union funded Pacific project, Judith Francis, said policies and programmes were analysed in the participating countries.

The project focusses on food production in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga.

Ms Francis said partnerships are a key point of focus for developing insurance and new information technology.

"So we need farmers to partner with each other but we also need farmers to partner with other value chain actors - governments, banks - so that we can improve the whole performance of the agricultural chain for incomes and better nutrition outcomes."