Minister of Agriculture, Laauli Leuatea Schmidt says the Society of Agricultural Professionals’ (SOAP) main pillar is to provide technical advice to Agriculture in Samoa.
Launched recently, SOAP is a platform for knowledge management/sharing and also to enhance professional/career development in agriculture.
During the launching Laauli said this initiative was prompt to assist with the roles played by the Government to ensure there is enough and through technical knowledge shared and instil to farmers of Samoa in all aspects of farming.
“The changes in technology nowadays also come with the changing of farming practices to many of our farmers.
“The old methods have to integrate with the new innovation of farming practices in order to achieve the sustainable farming objective.
“Samoan Agriculture have come a long way and has been the backbone of our economy.
“The recent decline in its contribution to the GDP can always due to many reasonable factors. However, the influx of financial assistance to the sector needed to be well consulted on technical agriculture so that the funds remain to circulate within Samoa.”
According to a statement released similar to other existing societies in Samoa, the Society of Agricultural Professionals is tasked with providing technical advice to agriculture in Samoa, use as a platform for knowledge sharing and management, and enhancing professional/career development in the agriculture field.
providing technical advice to Agriculture in Samoa seems very reliant on the Government Ministries as well as institutions such as USP and NUS.
“Some of the agriculture field aspects needed to dig deep into the specific knowledge which Samoans agriculturists do possess such inheritance.
“It is no doubt that these traits in the agriculture sector are abundant and available to share and contribute to agriculture development in Samoa.
“There are more opportunities financially from donor partners today targeting the agricultural experts available to provide assistance and guidance is one of the paramount prompts for this initiative.
“The outcomes of these services to international and regional partners are not wrong because we can always maintain the purpose of the society of knowledge sharing and management, however, if a service of such kind is available there is an opportunity to local regulate finance and like empowered the local understanding of the agriculture is Samoa.”
The society will start small by calling all agriculture graduates to register with $100 ($50 Annual subs and $50 Registration).
“Its legal framework and guidance should be drafted and follow suit.
The society is headed by its President, Secretary and Treasure. The executive comprised of 6 members (President and Vice, Secretary and Vice, Treasurer and Vice), as well as 2 Patrons.”
