The Ministry of Agriculture in an effort to enhance the potato industry in Fiji and to build the capacity of its staff, this week sent three officers to un­dergo overseas training on potato development.

Two officers from the Crop Ex­tension Division and one from the Crop Research Division will under­take three months training on ca­pacity building and technical areas of potato production at the Nation­al Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in Papua New Guinea.

Ministry of Agriculture perma­nent secretary, David Kolitagane while handing over the air tickets to the staff said that training was a very important component of capacity building within the Min­istry.

“We are sending our staff for training to increase their knowl­edge to provide better services to our farmers and we hope you come back and increase that outreach of potato planting and research for all Fijians,” Mr Kolitagane said.

Ministry’s acting director Exten­sion, Jone Sovalawa said potato was an important crop in terms of import reduction and in order to expand the industry, the capacity of Ministry officials needed to be strengthened and developed with new technologies in the field of po­tato development.

About MOU

“Upon their return, these three of­ficers will train other staff within the Ministry and farmers to assist in implementing correct husband­ry practices in potatoes in order to maximise its production,” he said.

Mr Sovalawa said the training was part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Fijian Government and NARI on December 12, 2013 on staff capacity building for both nations to foster sharing of knowledge in terms of agriculture development.

“To implement the MOU, the Ministry of Agriculture started to negotiate with NARI, PNG in 2014 when potato was brought back un­der the Potato Research and Devel­opment programme and this is the first time the staff are being sent on training, particularly for the po­tato commodity.”

Source: DEPTFO News

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