SIART, MAL- The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock’s (MAL) Solomon Islands Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SIART) Project starts the training for 15 Guadalcanal Agriculture extension officers at Parangiju Mountain Lodge, from July 10 to July 13, 2023.
Michael Hoota, MAL Deputy Secretary Technical, said during his official opening of SIART Project trainers training that the SIART Project came in the right time when MAL started the implementation of the New Day Strategy.
“SIART Project is really going into our rural areas and supporting our farmers to build their capacity to increase their rural income,” he said.
According to Louisa Fakaia, SIART Project Implementation Unit Manager, the purpose of the training is to introduce the SIART Project process of implementing its activities through the Provincial Project Teams to reach the rural farmers through the Agribusiness Producers Organization (ABPO) beneficiaries.
She highlighted the importance of the MAL extension officers to see the SIART Project activities as their MAL activities and take ownership of them.
Ho’ota also said, “SIART is our project. Rather, it is not a project, but be part of our work.”
He called on the Guadalcanal MAL trainers to take advantage of the training and learn as much as they could, to equip themselves for their field work with the ABPO beneficiaries.
Six pilot ABPOs will be started with the implementation of having two ABPOs from each of the project provinces of Malaita, Guadalcanal, and Makira Ulawa.
The pilot ABPOs’ good lessons will be replicated in the project rollout with the future ABPO beneficiaries.
“It is a time to do things differently in assisting our farmers, to improve our agricultural development standard”, said Andrew Melanolu, Director of the Extension Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
A participant thanked the Ministry of Agriculture and Live and the Solomon Islands Agriculture and Rural Transformation Project facilitators for the four days training.
He said the training has given the Guadalcanal Extension officers the knowledge about the SIART Project itself and its processes of supporting the Agribusiness producers’ organizations eligibility and sub grant process.
He added that the training has prepared them, as trainers, for the three project provinces (Malaita, Guadalcanal, and Makira) six pilot ABPOs in 2023, and the full roll out in early 2024.
Other two SIART Project training of trainers will be conducted in Kira Kira, Makira Ulawa Province and Auki, Malaita Province in this month of July 2023. END////
-SIART Press