Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
considered by the Lautoka City Council (LCC) to be 'tehnically squating', as they
do not have a land title or no longer have consent from a land owner - through the
Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) - to reside on indigenous land. In the 1990s, due
to concerns over increasing poverty and crime, the LCC applied for boundary exten-
sions to upgrade service provision in setlement areas that had extended beyond the
city boundary. Following a 15-year process, the boundary extensions were finally
approved in 2006, though by this time the number of squater setlements, result-
ing largely from expired agri-leases, had expanded significantly and could no longer
be contained even in the extensions applied for 15 years earlier (Thornton, 2009b).
More successful is the LCC's urban food market initiative: a significant statement
that embeds urban food production as an important contributor to the city's urban
food supply hain. In this regard, urban food production in Lautoka relects trends
in other cities and towns in the global South and North, where UPA is an important
source of local food and household income for many urban residents.
Countrywide, indigenous Fijians produce 15-17 per cent of food in urban areas,
while Indo-Fijians produce around 10 per cent of urban food. The availability of low-
cost food at urban markets is sourced, in part, from low-income producers: a rela-
tionship whih provides needed sources of income and food security for the poorest
and most vulnerable households. The LCC has recognized this contribution and fa-
cilitated the growth of UPA, as evident in the establishment of urban market stalls.
The urban market in downtown Lautoka offers a sheltered area and refrigeration ser-
vices for vendors of meat, fish, vegetables and fruits to operate. Although it is com-
parable in size to the Suva market (nearly 60,000 sq. m.), the Lautoka urban market
operates in a covered formal structure. A market licence is required to help cover the
costs of maintenance, as well as to ensure quality control for the LCC's health and
safety requirements - the cost of a market licence fee is F$2.20 per day or F$ 100 for
one year. Finally, the Public Health Act in the City of Lautoka is supportive of urban
agriculture as an acceptable source of household food. The Fijian government, like
the Samoan government, seeks to enhance local food production through the pro-
motion of self-sufficiency, including UPA, as a strategy to mitigate risk from price
shoks in staple foods, oil and the impact of global warming on the availability and
access to locally favoured and culturally important foods.
Increasing economic hardship is a fact of life in Pacific island countries; a notion
that might run counter to a Western perception of the South Pacific islands as places
of tropical tranquillity and socio-economic equality. The reality is that human and
