Over 90,000 families assisted through the Home Gardening program

Around 135,709 seed packages have so far been distributed under government’s Home Gardening program which has benefited over 90,000 families.

While speaking at this year’s World Food Day celebrations, Minister for Agriculture, Doctor Mahendra Reddy says the program was initiated to ensure that every Fijian family had access to reasonable supply of fresh and nutritious vegetables during the pandemic.

Dr Reddy says the impacts of COVID-19 and the continuous challenges imposed by climate change highlights the need to work together as value-based food supply chains that promote local food policies.

Dr Reddy says the celebration focused on raising awareness on the need for collaborative action across all sectors to make agri-food systems sectors more efficient and sustainable.

He adds it provides an ideal platform to emphasize the importance of agri-food systems transformation, connecting it to people’s daily lives and how this will affect the physical and economic accessibility to quality nutritious food.