Climate Change & Agriculture Committee Launched in Eratap

by Jean-Baptiste CALO

The Shefa Province Area Development Officer, Ian Kalsuak officially launched the Eratap Climate Change and Agriculture Committee on Friday November 7th  2014 at the Eratap Presbyterian Church hall.

Shefa Provincial Area Development Officer, Ian Kalsuak (Top Far left)
launched the Eratap Agriculture & Climate Change Committee.

M. Malian Andrew the young Eratap Area Secretary and Eratap Youth leader is heading the newly formed committee.

The newly launched Eratap Climate Change & Agriculture Committee is comprised of six (6) members who are community leaders within the village.

The newly formed committee is comprised of the following members:

Malian Andrew as the Chairman, Josephine Tom as the Vice-Chairman, David Andrew is  the Secretary, Andrew Andrew is Vice Secretary, Tinapu Andrew, Leisok Kalosil, Ray Kalosil and Kalfau Kalsong are the simple members of executive committee.

In his launching remarks, Mr Kalsuak congratulated the newly established community for their initiative and he also took the opportunity to challenge the Eratap Community to arise and to be proactive in working closely with the department of agriculture and the climate change authorities in the country to arrange for more awareness and demonstration plots where they could practically trial hybride root crops conceived by the Vanuatu Agriculture Research & Technical Centre (VARTC).

“People of Eratap, wake up, other villages located at the surrounding areas of Port-Vila such as the villages of Pango and Erakor have also recently launched their similar committees because they are aware of the urgency of to cater for food security in the future. And they are exposed to worse cases of population pressure (compared to Eratap) with the urban drift phenomena in the Capital city. Erakor and Pango are moving. They are acquiring more knowledge in forestry and new farming techniques resilient to climate change ....You have to wake up, move and organise yourself before you’ll be left out far behind”, Mr Kalsuak said.

He encouraged the newly established Agriculture and Climate Change Committee to be proactive and to work closely with the relevant government departments in order to train the Eratap farmers and families with the new farming techniques and new hybride root crops that will be trialled on the demonstration plot.

During that meeting, the Principal Agriculture Officer, Antoine Ravo and GIZ Climate Change Programme officer, Isso Nihmei did a presentation on the role of the Department of Agriculture of its extension services and the impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and the Environment.

Mr. Kalsuak praised Malian Andrew for his willingness and good heart to offer a piece of land for the demonstration plot.

Mr Ravo and Mr Nihmei congratulated the new established committee and invited them to work closely with the Department of Agriculture and GIZ Climate Change Programme for the trials on the demonstration plot.

Mr Ravo emphasised that government departments can only work on commented based project through such established committees.

This launching is a result of a project conducted by Native Productions, a small local TV production who carried out a survey study on the impacts of climate change and none climatic issues on the community of Eratap located at 15 minutes drive from Vanuatu’s capital, Port-Vila.

Eratap Area Secretary and Chairman of the newly established committee, Malian Andrew thanked Native Productions for the “Stori Blong Aelan” project on Eratap.

The Member of the Eratap Chief Council, Kalfao Kalsong said : “Through this project we had various workshops and group discussions on the Impact of Climate Change and urban drift. We had the opportunity to increase our knowledge and learn about the existence of new farming techniques resilient to Climate Change. And today, we are launching the Eratap Climate Change  & Agriculture Committee. All those things are happening through the project initiated by Native Productions. We hope that you will always be available in the future to assist us with your counsels”.

The “Stori Blong Aelan” project carried out by Native Productions is funded by Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS).

The project was comprised of a survey carried out during a one year period through various group discussions and meeting with the Eratap villagers who attended the workshops organised by Native Productions with the assistance from a facilitator from the Vanuatu National Climate Change Office. A short video documentary, “Stori blong Aelan” was also produced as part of that project. It is available on the PACMAS website and on Youtube on the following internet links:

http://www.pacmas.org/profile/documentary-stori-blong-aelan/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrKznfdfCM