WHEN Dr Madhuvanti Murphy landed in Fiji, hours after leaving Trinidad and Tobago, the striking resemblance to her homeland was uncanny at first.
The sweltering heat, coconut fronds, language, people and food were almost the same. Yet, once she looked past the glaring similarities, she was struck by how both countries faced the very real threat of food security and nourishment challenges among its population.
Dr Murphy, who came to Fiji to attend the launch of a community-based food production research effort, titled Global Community Food and Health (GCFaH), soon saw that similar to her country, Fiji too boasted soaring food imports due to the changing palettes of the people, tourists, but most importantly, the disparity in cost between imported and locally sourced products.
Last year, then agriculture minister Dr Mahendra Reddy had announced that Fiji’s estimated food import bill stood at $783.4 million in 2021. And in 2019, Fiji imported around $94.6m worth of wheat, for which the bill increased in 2021 to $108m.
To address the growing concerns, academics, Government officials and community leaders have come together as part of GCFaH, a four-year project funded by the United Kingdom’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).
Areas of concern
Food security may sound simple enough to understand, yet the umbrella term encompasses a range of issues that are all interlinked with each other.
In Fiji, nutritious and fresh food can be found overflowing in markets when the season hits, however, due to lifestyle habits and skyrocketing costs, some opt for the cheaper option of canned meats and veggies that not only have a long shelf life, but are relatively simple and easy to prepare.
A paper published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in 2020 also highlighted Fiji’s particular geographic, agricultural and economic context posed a challenge towards people’s access to affordable, nutritious, safe and diverse foods throughout the year.
“At certain times of the year, lettuce, cabbage and other fruits and vegetables need to be imported, which means that these popular products among Fijian families become seasonally unaffordable for large shares of the population,” the report stated.
This was corroborated by Dr Murphy, who is a senior lecturer in Qualitative Research Methods at the University of West Indies. Dr Murphy said as a society, food was ingrained in Fiji’s culture.
“We hear about small islands and we assume we’re all so different and we are you know, every country has individual nuances,” she said. “But what’s really interesting is there’s so many similarities for example, between the Caribbean and Fiji in terms of foods, in terms of what’s produced, how we prepare them, how we you know how even we how we eat you know, the social gatherings and it’s the way that we culturally sort of surround ourselves with food.
“Because of that, it’s really important for us to understand where our food is, what kind of food we were eating and consuming during these times.”
Co-relation between food, health and environment
About 80 per cent of children below two years suffer from anaemia, says Minister for Agriculture Vatimi Rayalu. He made the remark during the launch of the Global Community Food and Health (GCFaH) project in Suva recently.
“I understand that food security not only in Fiji but in the region is faced with enormous challenges, brought about by the rapid occurrence of natural disasters and the scale at which these hit us as compared to yesteryears,” he said.
“The rising sea levels which have caused the intrusion of salt water into areas that were usually planted with crops also in the yesteryears. The rising population and the accompanying problem of malnutrition has become a cause of the rise of alarming rate of NCDs.”
He said the country had some of the highest rates of diabetes and cardiac diseases in the region.
“In the Ministry of Agriculture and Waterways, we are doing all we can to try and address the problem.
“As much as we would want to see that the country produces all the food and crops that it can in order to meet the export demands, there is also the need to watch out for these scarce resources we have and the damage that can be done not only to our waterways but our river systems right up to the coast.
“So the ministry sometimes has difficult times when we come to think of how we should address both issues.
“While we are mandated to see that there is ample food produced for the country and there is ample crops produced in order to be exported, we are also confronted with the environmental issues that can come with large scale production.”
“Spice” it up
To make indigenous and traditional meals even better, there can be cross sharing of recipes and cooking methods among different communities.
Dr Madhuvanti Murphy said during her time in Fiji, she was blown away by how similar food was to her country.
“Even things like the foods that we’ve had during the times of during this week, you know, being able to go back and say, oh my gosh, you know, you use taro, which is what we call dasheen,” she said.
“The way you prepare it is similar but a little bit different. And, you know, how do we do that? And how can we share things like recipes and how can we diversify what we’re growing so that we’re growing different things and more things so that people have more options?
“I think a lot of times, we’ll figure that they have enough options when it comes to that we grow. And I’ve seen a lot of things like cassava, taro, are the main things I’ve been seeing in terms of what’s what’s used here.
“So really trying to think how can we diversify and add more things.”
She said Fiji was often called a land of abundance, however, there was still an issue of high imports.
“So it’s about teaching people the importance of the indigenous foods, how to make things tasty. What we can accomplish in creative dishes are really delicious and nutritious.
“Nutrition is so important in this country. It’s a good thing to eat the food that you grow. I think people think that that’s a bad thing but it’s a really good thing to be able to grow something and then be able to eat it yourself.”
Community engagement
Co-designing of any policy or framework is vital towards sustaining the project for a longer term.
Dr Madhuvanti Murphy said Fiji was unique in the context that a group could not just seek assistance from Government directly as there was a chain of command to be followed, right down from the turaga ni koro to the high chiefs of various provinces, district officers and divisional commissioners.
“Here, you really feel the importance of respecting the land, the sea,” she said.
Dr Murphy said when a plan or policy came about, it was vital to discuss it with those at the community level to get their feedback on ways in which engagement could be enhanced.
According to Nigel Unwin, the professor for Public Health and Epidemiology at the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge, a chain of collaboration between Government, academics and community was vital in working towards a project that would succeed.
“It’s absolutely essential that the co-creation is done in a way that people feel complete ownership of it and they feel they are stressing their needs and it becomes a partnership,” he said.
“This is my first trip to Fiji, and there’s nothing like seeing it with your own eyes. There’s nothing like for example, visiting a village, meeting the chief, paramount chief and really, you know, hearing about the initiatives from them and why the project is important.
“Getting some insight into the local governance structures and understanding that in Fiji, you have to work with the elected Government but equally, you have to also respect and work with the community governance structures, and so you need to do both together.
Reducing imports a solution?
The issue of getting people to “buy local” isn’t something that can be addressed overnight.
Professor Nigel Unwin gave an anecdotal example of Haiti, wherein people sold fresh produce to others, mostly foreign aid workers, and used the money they earned to buy cost-effective processed foods.
“So there isn’t a simple answer to that. I think one answer is the possibility of people with home gardens with land available,” he said.
According to Prof Unwin, certain permaculture and agriculture techniques that weren’t labour intensive could be used to encourage people to take up backyard farming.
“That’s a hope because they could also sell them (fresh produce) and then also buy fast foods or highly processed foods. The other thing is the importance of a supportive policy framework and governance of the food system.
“What kinds of fiscal policies and import regulations, local agricultural policies, how much is about supporting exports and local food consumption etc.
“One of the things we can do as part of the project is analyse that and say, “well, this is what the current policy environment seems to encourage. These changes we believe will be helpful in supporting more local production and making it easier for local population to find consumed local foods”.
Global Community Food and Health (GCFaH)
A four-year project funded by the UK Government through its National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), the project is targeting research in Rewa, Tailevu, and Naitasiri.
All research will be conducted in Fiji, Philippines, St Vincent and St Lucia.
Supporting partners of this project are the University of Exeter, University of the South Pacific (USP), Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development (FRIEND), along with key universities in the Caribbean, Philippines, UK and Canada.
Professor Nigel Unwin said the project was just getting going.
“We’re six months into this, in terms of assessing the legal side of it, for example, the financial side of it,” he said.
“So we’re going to cover the next phases, which are to collect baseline data. So we go to the status of the populations and the project areas we sourced for those gardens and producing food in the project areas.
“We’ll look at how sustainable that is. You know the issues that we’ve heard about and it’s the same in the Caribbean, in the Philippines.”
Prof Unwin said there was also a conception held that food produced by smaller farmers was more sustainable, however, there were many instances in which items like pesticides were being used, either before harvest or after.
He said their focus was to work with communities to develop interventions with the initial information and secure further funding for the project should the need arise.
