BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
THIS year’s World Food Day was honoured with a variety of food displayed in style to raise awareness on the importance of food and to honour farmers in the country.
The three-day event commenced with a float parade starting from the Honiara City Council to Townground, featuring stakeholders and food farmers showcasing different food in their booths.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare who was the guest speaker of the event echoed, “We continue to invest in training our farmers, because the impacts of climate change on people’s live are really disturbing.”
He said his government will continue to invest in food security training in terms of supply of tools and equipment.
“We are committed a s government to growing the sector and making it more productive to support our business farmers to feed our nation, grow our economy for good living standard and to improve our health. In simple term this is our vison for the people of Solomon Islands and our nation,” Sogavare said.
Jimi Saelea, Food Agriculture Representative (FAO) on behalf of FAO Director General Mr Qu Dongyu and FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for Pacific Islands, said this year’s World Food day is celebrated under the cloud of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“On this World Food Day (yesterday), we pay tribute to the Food Hero’s including our rural farmers, fishers, foresters, food processors, market vendors and the back yard gardeners who ensure we had food to eat.
“This World Food Day also calls on all of us to become a food hero ourselves as we continue to transform the ways in which our food is produced, processed, stored, distributed and consumed,” Saelea said.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Ethel Francis said speaks highly of all farmers inside the country.
“Let me thank all of you our women farmers around the country for your role in the homes and in farming. We who are here today (yesterday) know our women’s contributions to the homes and this sector because we all have farming mothers.
“Allow me to pay respect to our many hardworking farmers around this beautiful country of ours because they are the ones who keeps the wheel turning for us.”
“We often look at the figures and value and forget where and how it happened and what the person that makes it happen went through. These are our unseen heros, true Solomon Islanders,” Ms Francis said.
