“FCLC conducted a one-day training workshop, for Ovalau & Moturiki farmers and market vendors, on 9th June 2022.
The training was held at the Levuka Town Hall, with the theme “Empowering Farmers, Women & Youths In Value Chain Analysis & Market Development Training Workshop, to Improve Entrepreneurship Skills, and Agribusiness Relations for realizing Inclusive Economic Growth, and More Resilient Livelihoods”.
The workshop was officially opened by the Assistant Minister for iTaukei Affairs, Honourable Selai Adimaitoga. In opening the Training, the Hon. Assistant Minister highlighted the importance of teamwork, which should start in the family, where parents should work hand in hand with their children to develop a plan that includes farming as a business. Farming is a career, and should also be prioritized as a sustainable source of income to support farming families’ health and nutrition, food safety and security, more resilient livelihoods, and inclusive economic growth.
More than 85 participants of which more than 70% were females, attended theTraining Workshop.
The training program includes group work, where participants did their own situational analysis and assessment of where they are today and where they want to be in years to come. It was exciting to learn the strengths and opportunities the participants themselves identified from their group work, which they have to capitalise on in addressing the challenges they faced in their capacity as farmers and market vendors.
Empowering these farmers and market vendors with the right knowledge and skills enabled them to understand the importance of working as clusters/groups or in association with proper governance, planning, teamwork, and undertaking their roles responsibly to achieve their targets. In addition, it is equally important for them to realize the economic potential that they all can access through knowledge sharing and a multistakeholder collaborative approach such as this.
Similar training is to be conducted by FCLC in the remaining islands of Lomaiviti, according to the FCLC CEO Jiu Daunivalu.”