Agriculture project aims to make most of Tongan asset

Transcript

A founder of a new project aiming to foster greater participation of Tongan women in agriculture is encouraging people involved in the sector to look for opportunities in regional markets.

The Women in Agriculture Media project is targetting better two way communication between women in Tongan agriculture and official information providers.

Project-founder Anthony Haas of the New Zealand-based Centre for Citizenship Education says females are a huge asset to Tonga's agriculture sector and need to be given more opportunities.

Johnny Blades asked Mr Haas if the recent cyclone which devastated the Ha'apai group made his project's message more pertinent.

ANTHONY HAAS: Yet another natural disaster to add to other disasters that Tonga faces. And I decided once I got my head around the problems facing Ha'apai to ask the extension head in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Tonga what did he think was the implication of this for women? He answered my question and said, they can grow vegetables around the household, they can grow vegetables in a way that gives quick growing crops to substitute for the loss of food caused by the cyclone. A list of standard vegetable products comes as music no doubt to a number of ears - you can grow radishes, Chinese cabbages, ordinary cabbages, potatoes... these are all crops he mentioned that the women could grow around the house and could be on the land available to the women and their families further out.

JOHNNY BLADES: What's your feeling about the will of people to get in behind this kind of thing? Because there are surveys globally which paint people in general as being far more lazy these days about doing things like growing and sustaining vegetable crops.

AH: I think there's a real cultural problem with attitudes towards blue collar, green fingers work, and that's something I would like to help erode with my approach to communications. I just think Tonga has an asset in its vegetable-growing base. The people who work it can get opportunities. I think of one woman on Ha'apai: she was growing much fruit, much vegetables, she was growing all these things and she and her husband talked with me about other initiatives they could take (to further their growing efforts and improve produce), that was before the hurricane. Well now, after then hurricane, it's even more urgent that they are positive, continue to be positive, and spread the word amongst others, be they women and young girls or men.

JB: It's community-driven, but it really has to be in this day and age, doesn't it? In the Pacific you can't wait around for a government to do things for you.

AH: It's a debatable issue, how you motivate Tongans to produce better agriculture. All we're saying here is that the women are an asset, the women need the opportunity. Agriculture gives them the opportunity. What about looking deliberately for more of the strengths of more women and apply them and foster them. Give them knowledge, give them markets, give them opportunity.