Improving life in the Pacific
Better agriculture and fishing
Pacific Island Countries face numerous obstacles to development, including size, remoteness and geographic dispersion. Most island people live in rural areas, depending on agriculture, fisheries and forestry for the food they eat and for their livelihoods. Island food security is fragile. Natural disasters such as cyclones, flooding, drought, earthquakes, tsunamis and the threat of climate change put even greater stress on the already delicate environment of the islands, further eroding the people's food security.
But, today, many Pacific islanders can live healthy lives, thanks to a seven-year food security initiative by 14 island countries supported by Italy, FAO and a broad alliance of development partners. Following a positive independent assessment, the effort is about to be expanded and extended as the Food Security and Sustainable Livelihood Programme in the Pacific Island Countries (FSSLP).
Improving local food production
"The over-arching goal of the Regional Programme for Food Security in the Pacific is to help island people grow healthier by eating more nutritious local foods, while reducing the amount of processed imported food they eat," says Vili Fuavao, FAO Subregional Representative for the Pacific Islands.
Fuavao added: "This unique and ambitious effort approached food security on two tracks: A national initiative and a regional one. At its heart, the national initiative was directly concerned with improving the food output of farmers and fishers, while the regional track focused on developing new trade relations among the islands."
Reducing hunger
FAO says food security exists "when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."
While there is no out-right hunger in the Pacific, health problems caused by poor diets are a constant threat and will cause more difficulties in the future if they are not addressed now.
Training increases local food availability
The projects helped farmers boost food production and incomes, which led to better nutrition as the variety and availability of local food increased while incomes grew. More than 43 500 people - farmers, agricultural trade and marketing officials as well as food safety experts - were trained in livestock improvement, crop intensification, pest management and control, food processing and adding value to local food products through modern packaging.
In light of these successes, FAO and its development partners are looking to the future these days as they prepare to launch the follow-on initiative that will foster growing hope among island people for a better tomorrow, offering improve livelihood opportunities and more nutritious food through increased food availability, a greater varitey of food products and more reasonable prices.
The 1996 World Food Summit recognized the importance of food security when it set the goal of cutting the number of hungry people in the world by half by the year 2015. Keeping this goal in mind, 14 Pacific Island Countries worked with FAO, using initial funding from Italy of US$4.5 million to establish 26 national food security projects in their countries.