Agriculture Minister Vatimi Rayalu believes that poverty is a bottleneck to socio-economic development.

Rayau reiterates that greater efforts must be made by Government to fight and reduce poverty and improve the quality of people’s lives in Fiji,

While speaking In Parliament, Minister for Agriculture Vatimi Rayalu highlights that poverty leads to many other social ills such as drug and substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide and exploitation of children, to name a few.

He adds that poverty is a cancer that is eating away at the very flesh and muscle and bones of society that must be addressed head-on by Government in partnership with relevant stakeholders.

Rayalu stresses that the Household Income and Expenditure Survey for 2019 to 2020 estimates that the national incidence of poverty in Fiji impacted 24.1 percent of our population.

The Minister emphasizes that the fight against poverty in reality is a fight against drug and substance abuse, particularly against our youth, fight against domestic violence against women and fight against the exploitation of children.

The Ministry of Agriculture is working on using Agriculture as a tool in Fiji’s fight against poverty and the associated social ills.