Families across Fiji are being urged to take up backyard farming now as a practical shield against rising food insecurity tied to global inflation and mounting tensions in the Middle East, Agriculture Minister Tomasi Tunabuna said in an interview with this newspaper. Tunabuna said growing one’s own food — even in urban and peri-urban settings — can help households reduce grocery bills and weather supply disruptions should international conflict intensify.
“Fijians are saying, ‘we are struggling to put food on the table,’” the minister said, adding that the problem lies less with an inability to grow food than with not doing so actively. He encouraged households to plant simple, quick-yield crops such as tomatoes, beans and cabbages, which he said can sustain families for extended periods during crises. “Because growing food is not difficult, I don’t see that as a very, very big task to grow our own food,” Tunabuna said.
Tunabuna tied his appeal to worries that escalation of hostilities in the Middle East could push up global food and fuel prices and disrupt supply lines — pressures already felt locally through inflation. He warned that those pressures could make imported foodstuffs less reliable or more costly, and urged communities to start planting immediately as a precautionary measure: “So the crisis people are fearing will come when the war intensifies, all we need to do is to plant.”
The minister said the government is not leaving households to fend for themselves. Government ministries have long distributed seeds and provided support for small-scale farming, Tunabuna noted, and the Ministry of Agriculture continues to offer subsidised agricultural inputs. “Come to our agriculture office in Koronivia, we have cheap fertilisers and seeds we can give for them to start planting now,” he said, citing the ministry’s Koronivia office as a local point of access for inputs and advice.
Tunabuna also pointed to the ministry’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when seed distribution programs helped families grow food amid supply shocks and movement restrictions. “We did it during the COVID time, we can do it even now. It’s time for people to come,” he said, urging Fijians to make use of available resources.
The minister’s call comes amid broader concern over the rising cost of living in Fiji. Community groups and service organisations have previously highlighted mounting household pressures and suggested policy reassessments to help vulnerable families cope. Tunabuna’s appeal for a return to subsistence and backyard growing adds a practical, government-backed component to those wider discussions about food security and household resilience.
As the situation develops, the Ministry of Agriculture appears focused on combining outreach with tangible support. For households interested in backyard farming, the ministry’s Koronivia office remains the primary contact point for subsidised fertilisers, seeds and guidance on small-scale cultivation.
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