The capabilities to identify natural disasters impacts and analyzing them is a challenge for the Agriculture Ministry.
Permanent Secretary, David Kolitagane, says more resources are needed to address this issue in an effort to respond early to the needs of farmers.
Kolitagane says people rely on local agriculture for food and as source of income, however, lack of information on the impact of disasters like drought can harm the sector.
“The challenges include increasing our capacities to identify dry spells and analyze them in an effort to respond early and more efficiently to the needs of the Fijian farmers, to support local farming activities that have an instrumental role in supporting food security and rural livelihoods.”
In an effort to address the issue, the European Union together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations provide IT equipment for the ministry to help improve data collection, analysis and mapping of disaster and risk assessment.
Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to Fiji, Christoph Wagner says the tablets are installed with KoBo Toolbox, a free data collection software used to undertake disaster assessments.
A training will also be soon undertaken by the ministry on the use of the software and the capacity building of the national institutions in the fight against climate change driven disasters.
