More than 200,000 tomato and capsicum seeds are available to help Tongan farmers rehabilitate their crops after Cyclone Gita caused widespread damage last month.

The seeds were handed over to the Deputy CEO of The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF), Mr Emanuele Moale last week at a ceremony in ‘Eua.

The seeds were from a new seedbank that was set up at Hango Agriculture College in ‘Eua last year, supported by the European Union (EU) and The Pacific Community (SPC) Agriculture Policy Program. They were only harvested from the seedbank in the months leading up to the cyclone.

Mr Moale was grateful to accept the seeds and thankful to the college for embarking on the seedbank venture and their contribution to help the Government and national recovery efforts.

He said the handover was timely and that it was very critical for farmers to access the seeds to help them get back on their feet.

SPC Agriculture Policy Program Adviser, Mr Vili Caniogo said the college and the SPC team set up the seedbank in the last eight months with phased harvest timelines which is why the batch of seeds were available.

“Hango has quickly adopted this systematic programming which fortuitously has made these seeds available at this time of urgent need.”

“A key intention of the seedbank at the start was always to complement Government seed services and as such, Hango College has done extremely well,” he said.

Hango College has a “vision to excel in providing agricultural services and education for Tonga’s youth in line with national development goals” said Principal, Reverend Finau.

The college will be rehabilitating its crops and farms with help from SPC, FAO, MAFFF and other partners.