Village garden project in Samoa could take off as demand rises

Transcript

A village garden project in Samoa is now supplying most of the resorts and hotels and could be replicated around the country.

The Poutasi Farm was set up in 2010 with the help of the Tindall Foundation and New Zealand aid through the Volunteer Service Abroad, and facilitated by the village's paramount chief, Tuatagaloa Joe Annandale.

The International Programme Manager at VSA, Junior Ulu, set up the programme and says the villagers have become empowered through a simple concept, that is even funding a local art centre and providing lunches for the primary school.

He spoke to Alex Perrottet.

JUNIOR ULU: They've got regular customers, Scalini's, I think they even go out to Aggies, they've got Tanoa, they've got regular customers that buy produce that's not available in Samoa. It's rocket, it's different salad mixes that aren't readily available but it's what local tourists want, local chefs want to cook with so it's sort of grown into something bigger than what we even discussed. Not everyone in Samoa is doing it, I mean there's a big market but there's not a lot of growers. It's in Poutasi, in the village and it's providing employment to the locals, which is what Tuatagaloa wanted at the time.

ALEX PERROTTET: How many people are involved and what sort of returns are being gained for the village?

JU: One of the things that they wanted, the profits that were coming in, last year when I was there they were looking at trying to get a 1000 tala profit a week for the work they were bringing in and they were close to getting that amount and it's providing jobs for around six or seven people but that could have increased by now and one of them was. There's a woman there now as well, so that's quite good that they were providing employment opportunities for local women in the village.

AP: And are you aware of any other examples, I mean maybe the same idea could be replicated in other parts of Samoa?

JU: There's been some multilateral donors that have actually been interested in the project and they're looking at replicating that, so we would partner with that international donor, but it's not confirmed but they are happy to do this in Savai'i as well. It wasn't a huge enough market but now I think they are struggling to keep up with the demand at the moment, so I can see it probably happening somewhere else, and that was Tuatagaloa's intention from the start that it could be something that could be done in other parts of Samoa and it wasn't just for Poutasi, which is great. He's been a real visionary for this. But one of the things he said to me was 'I have people queuing up outside my door, in January, asking for school fees, asking for bags for their kids, asking for uniform money, mothers, and he said I just want them to understand that they can make a life for themselves as well and provide opportunities for themselves. And for me I thought yep, this guy is serious, it is not just about getting a paramount title, it's more than that for this guy. He really is genuinely about the people, and that's why I thought I want to sign up to this and I really want to make this work and that's why VSA got involved.