| ID: | 83741 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Kiribati |
| Title: | Kiribati – Pacific Islands Rural and Agriculture Stimulus Facility (PIRAS) – November 2022 |
| Description: |
Rawauea Kaekea Tabakarere lives in Takoronga Maitoro Community in Betio, South Tarawa where she and her community are directly impacted by climate change. Her bure (traditional home), like so many others in her village, is alarmingly close to the rising sea. Although she enjoys an idyllic sea view landscape from her backyard garden, Kaekea lives with the constant worry that even the slightest high tide could overflow the makeshift barriers she has built to protect her home garden, destroying the vegetables she works so hard to cultivate. The people in her village are seeking sustainable solutions to replace the old tires and gas cylinders that they have used as barriers against rising sea levels, but that paradoxically have contributed to environmental degradation and health hazards within their communities. Like so many I-Kiribati, Kaekea is seeking sustainable solutions to protect her property against rising sea levels. “We received training from the Live & Learn Environmental Education team on home gardening long before the pandemic reached us in Kiribati. When we became aware of COVID and how it was spreading, we worked in our gardens to prepare ourselves. We bought supplies before the lockdown started, but it wasn’t enough to get us through the pandemic. Most shops were closed and police were strictly patrolling to enforce the lockdown,” explained Kaekea. When the PIRAS project started in early 2022, it provided labour-saving tools needed for gardening, and other inputs that helped increase production, the variety of nutritious vegetables households have to eat, and how much they can sell to boost their income. After just eleven months, by the end of 2022, they were in their third cycle of transplanting, harvesting and selling their fruits and vegetables at the Teaoraereke local market. “I am so grateful for the training and what I have learned. My home garden is progressing well, and I am replicating the lessons I learned with my family members so we can sustain and build on that knowledge. For me, land scarcity is a challenge. The only way for me to expand leads to gardening next to the sea.” Launched in 2022 in collaboration between IFAD and the Australian Government, the Pacific Islands Rural and Agriculture Stimulus (PIRAS) Facility is a regional initiative that aims to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural island households. The programme supports food system and economic recovery by prioritizing food self-reliance, improving local nutrition and developing sustainable, equitable agricultural livelihood opportunities for rural communities in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. In Kiribati, PIRAS works in collaboration with the Atolls Food Future Project, implemented by Live & Learn Environmental Education, and focuses on increasing farm production, nutrition and climate resilience by providing farmers and gardeners with nutrition-sensitive seedlings and planting materials, labour-saving tools, and equipment. It trains them in the safe use and maintenance of water tanks, composting production and soil preparation, and liquid fertilizer production and application. |
| Size: | 6.76 MB; 5472 x 3648 pixels; 463 x 309 mm (print at 300 DPI); 1448 x 965 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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