Ministry ends year under budget

The Annual Report of the Ministry for Agriculture for the year 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 was tabled in Parliament last week by the Minister for Agriculture Hon Robert Wigmore. Secretary for Agriculture Nga Mataio completed the report on 30 July 2009 and submitted it to the Minister on 31 July 2009. For those who may be interested copies are available from Parliament for $8.50.
A highlight is that the Ministry ended the year under budget in four of its five outputs.
The report mentions the propagation of vegetable and fruit seedlings as an activity which could be privatized if someone wanted to have a go. The main plants the Ministry propagates are tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, watermelon, cucumber, capsicum, carambola, pak choy, beans, pawpaw, mango, orange and lemon.
The report mentions that revenue levels at the Punanga Nui Market have increased due to the increased number of huts and side stalls. Trading revenue is listed as $134,569.
During the year, six projects were approved by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), four for Agriculture and two for Marine. These projects are expected to contribute principally to production for both the local and export markets, thus contributing to the economic sustainability of the country. FAO is gearing up to implement its regional programme for food security expansion project (US$72 million for the Pacific Islands) by late 2009, early 2010. A project management unit is to be established at the FAO regional office in Samoa to coordinate the implementation of 126 projects for the Pacific.
Two of the projects approved by the FAO were the Young Farmers project and the Floriculture project which both began in January 2008 and will end in December 2009. Both projects involved people in Aitutaki and Rarotonga.
Young farmers are currently reporting back on their project in a three day workshop –see separate story.
The floriculture project involved an orchid training programme and an anthurium training programme.
The orchid programme had 60 participants from Rarotonga and 60 from Aitutaki-mainly women. A total of 6,000 orchid plantlets were imported from Thailand and shared between the two islands.
The anthurium programme also involved 60 participants in Rarotonga and 60 in Aitutaki-mainly women. A total of 4,000 anthurium plantlets of assorted colours from Holland were shared between the two islands.

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