Photos by Sione Vuki

Tonga's growing reliance on imports to meet its protein needs, threatens the nation's food security, and this was a concern discussed at a regional FAO meeting in Vava'u last week.

Mana'ia Halafihi, the Officer in charge of Tonga's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries in Vava'u said Tonga's importation of meat, mutton, beef, chicken, egg and milk has been steadily on the rise during the past few years.

He said that an established import substitution program to meet Tonga's needs for protein needs to be boosted,

On the issue of Food Security, Mana'ia said that in Tonga's case, although an import substitution program to meet our protein needs had been in place for a few years, with the rearing of sheep aanimals needed to be boosted. "Even with the growing of vegetables, as we are also stepping up our importation of vegetables," he said.

Meeting in Neiafu, Vava'u, from April 5-7 the FAO biannual regional meeting on the theme "Sustainable agriculture and food security" reviewed some of the work programs that FAO and its member countries in the region had carried out during the past two years and formulated a working policy for the next two years.

Issues such as Climate Change, Natural Disasters, soil erosion and its impact on low lying areas and swampy land were considered.

Mana'ia said that the Neiafu meeting attracted 14 representatives from 14 regional governments, including eight ministers of agriculture and several chief executive officers. There were also observers from regional organisations such as the SPC, the Pacific Islands Development Program PIDP, and SPREP.

The meeting was the last regional meeting to be attended by the Director General, Dr Jacques Diouf whose term of office will end in June.