Presentation of Seychelles National Agriculture Investment Plan |20 November 2015

‘Demand can be satisfied locally’

For the past eight years, the Seychelles government has been working on a national plan to revive the agriculture and fisheries sectors and ensure better food security for the Seychellois population.

As a result, it has come up with the Seychelles National Agricultural Investment Plan (SNAIP), a four-year strategy covering the period 2016-2020 and which is expected to cost R1.5 billion.
The Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture Wallace Cosgrow has explained that as the Seychelles government will be by itself unable to finance the entire plan, it has to turn to potential partners to seek financial, technical and other forms of support for its implementation.

Minister Cosgrow was speaking at a high level business meeting at the Eden Bleu Hotel yesterday morning, where the plan was presented to the prospective partners.

The presentation took place in the presence of Vice-President Danny Faure, Minister for Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy Jean-Paul Adam, Minister for Investment, Entrepreneurship Development and Business Innovation Michael Benstrong, members of the diplomatic corps, fisheries and agriculture officials, representatives of international and regional organisations such as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) as well as representatives of the local farming and fishing communities.
Minister Cosgrow described the occasion as an important milestone but only the beginning of the implementation process. Adding that his ministry has been in the past accused of neglecting the two vital sectors, he said this was not the case.

He rather stated that it is important to invest in the sectors, although he admitted that local production does not offer a comparative advantage to importation.
 
He stressed on the dangers of imported food, reminding that our demand is negligible and thus not a priority for suppliers and threatened by piracy, pests and diseases.

“We cannot afford that our agricultural sector be steered externally,” he emphasised.

Minister Cosgrow said although we prefer importation as an easy way out, a recent Nepad study has shown that the demand can be satisfied locally. The study, he added, has also shown room for expansion of the local agricultural sector.

He consequently called on all organisations present to help implement the National Agriculture Investment Plan.

The assistant secretary general of Comesa, Dr Kipyego Cheluget, has described the meeting as an important and historical event which will help in the financing of the agricultural plan.

The plan, he said, will ensure alignment with the medium and long-term and will also provide inspiration to other Comesa members to finalise their agricultural plan, adding that such initiative must be fully utilised by member states in order to bring transformation in the agricultural sector and eventually economic transformation.

“Such development must be driven by political will, with Seychelles being a good example,” Dr Cheluget commented.