Eriko Hibi handing over seeds to Apolima residents. The seeds were supplied by the Samoa Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

Residents of Manono and Apolima islands in Samoa recently received assistance from a visiting technical team comprised of staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and the FAO.

Like other parts of the Pacific, Manono and Apolima Island are both vulnerable to climate hazards such as cyclones and sea level rise. An FAO project funded by the Government of Italy has involved trainings and demonstrations to communities to build their capacity to diversify their sources of food to eat and to sell and grow climate resilient crops to adapt to projected climate change. 

FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific, Eriko Hibi joined the team that visited two adaptation project sites being implemented by the local communities with technical support from FAO and MAF.

Hibi said that supporting very isolated communities who were seeing the benefits of this initiative was very positive. Hibi explained. “This project aims to join agricultural sectors into climate change priorities for sustainable and resilient domestic food production, and food security and nutrition for the most vulnerable communities”.

Apolima Reverend, Amosa Silipa, who along with the community diversified into other crops to supplement their traditional staple foods. “All we needed was a little help. We grew so much cabbage we were selling it.” Said the Reverend. 

Background:

The regional project is funded by the Government of Italy and involves trialing climate resilient tools and methodologies in nine Pacific and Caribbean countries. The objectives of the project are:

• improve country capacities to use analytical techniques to assess risks, vulnerabilities and impacts of climate change in the agricultural sectors;
• improve country capacities to create enabling policy environments to mainstream climate change, resilience  food security concerns and undertake climate actions; and
• contribute to international and regional mechanisms for climate change planning and action

integrate climate change and resilience planning into FAO technical cooperation projects.