You are here
Home | Green Lobbies for Provision of Local Capital for Agricultural Innovators at FAO
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green, has called on development partners to use development fund to reshape local financial structure and provide more capital to agriculture and agricultural innovators in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“Our farmers in Small Island Developing States need access to investment capital, and a solution to this is using developmental financing to reform local financial systems so that they can finance agriculture on an ongoing basis,” said Green.
In the panel discussion along with the Fijian Attorney-General; Minister for Economy, Civil Service, Communication and Minister Responsible for Climate Change, representatives from the World Bank, representatives from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Minister Green discussed partnerships and investments in agriculture and stated that there is a need for development financing structures to be re-arranged so that SIDS are not just categorized as middle income countries and as such, cannot get concessionary funding, but that they are instead categorized based on their vulnerability. He says this is especially needed because these are the countries that suffer most from climate change and weather events.
“We need development funding on concessionary terms to flow to Small Island Developing States. We can also look at utilizing the technical expertise that we have at the international level to develop on a regional level, some diaspora bonds that can finance agriculture.’ he said.
Green was speaking at the two-day virtual SIDS Solutions Forum (August 30-31), co-hosted by FAO and the Government of Fiji. Heads of State and Government from nine Pacific Island countries attended, as well as government ministers holding key portfolios related to agriculture, food, nutrition, environment, health, and information and communications technology from African and Caribbean countries.
The Agriculture minister also used the opportunity to speak about the need for climate-smart financing to ramp up the irrigation infrastructure across the region and the need for storage and distribution models to strengthen the agri- food systems.
The first-of-its kind solutions forum brought together SIDS to explore solutions around the fundamental challenges that they have in agriculture and the agri-food systems.
-30-
