| ID: | 85982 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Solomon Islands |
| Title: | Solomon Islands - Pacific Islands Rural and Agriculture Stimulus Facility (PIRAS) - November 2022 |
| Description: |
Priscilla Sika is a 38-year-old small-scale farmer who lives in Pokilo Village on Savo Island, Central province, just 35 kilometres north of the country’s capital, Honiara – yet, a world apart. She is married and has three children. Her husband lost his job as a boat taxi driver during the pandemic-related lockdown when travel was restricted. Since the PIRAS project launched activities in early 2022, Priscilla has benefitted from trainings on improved agricultural practices leading to significant improvements in her profits. The solutions provided by PIRAS not only increased her opportunities for direct sales but also played a crucial role in helping her recover from the challenges posed by the pandemic. PIRAS is a collaboration between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Australian Government that supports food system and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific. Working through local implementing partner, Kastom Garden Association, the programme prioritizes strengthening food self-reliance, improving local nutrition and developing sustainable, equitable agricultural livelihood opportunities for 30 island communities in Solomon Islands’ Western, Choiseul and Central provinces. During the pandemic-related lockdown and trade restrictions, it was forbidden for people to travel beyond their village. Lacking access to markets and processed foods, people started trying to grow more things to eat, but gardening was something new for many of them. They required planting materials, such as seeds, and often lacked tools and technical skills. Many people were forced to turn to traditional staple foods like fish and coconut, and survived on that very limited diet for months, supplemented perhaps with swamp taro, some sweet potatoes and the few vegetables they managed to grow in their backyard gardens. PIRAS, working through local implementing partner Kastom Garden, launched in March 2022, providing training and inputs, even to some of the most remote islands. And so, the people learned new skills and started to grow more nutritious vegetables and root crops more productively. PIRAS also provided chickens and pigs and trained the people how to care for and reproduce them to add protein to their diets. |
| Size: | 942.71 KB; 1241 x 688 pixels; 105 x 58 mm (print at 300 DPI); 328 x 182 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Show more details: | Barbara Gravelli |
| Copyright: | @IFAD/Barbara Gravelli |
| Categories: | New from Asia and the Pacific |
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