The impacts of climate change and continued increase in the cost of living are directly affecting the
farmers? community in Seychelles in terms of capacity and resources to make ends meet within the sector. The impacts of COVID19 on the country has not made things easier for the farmers, but it is providing opportunities for the sector. Now that the country has embarked on an economic programme with the IMF, a lot of pressure is being put on the sector to produce more and do better so it can rise to become another strong economic pillar for the country, thus meeting local demand and market supply. The challenges remain however, that the local farmers are facing aggressive competition with imported meats, fresh and frozen vegetables and fruits and sold at a cheaper rate than the local goods. This reduces the economic viability of the small holder farmers. Farmers have also been having difficulty in accessing animal feed and this has caused many to scale down and some even closed leading to unemployment in the sector, considered as one of the poorest communities. The Seychelles Meteorological Office forecast has predicted that the amount in rainfall will be less with the occurrence of La Nina condition, farmers will be at the forefront of the impacts. The management of water is vital at this point so that the agricultural sector can continue to operate without interruption. Several agricultural water catchments are not being well maintained, no proper monitoring is being done to ensure that maximum water is collected and stored, new water sources has been identified but requiring restoration and sustainable management, which will directly benefit the farmers. Imported products (vegetable/fruits/livestock) have a negative impact on the local farmers as well as on the consumers. Imported goods are flooding the local market and this not without a large footprint resulting in CO2 emissions and pollutions and of course posing a
threat to biosecurity in the country. More Than 80% of our food supply are imported. Farmers are finding it difficult to penetrate the local market including hotels and guesthouses as most of their products are imported. With variation in climate, farmers need to find alternative & innovative ways to produce all year round and provide food that is safe and healthy for consumers, so they can earn a living at the same time making their products more affordable on the local market, while enhancing its market strategies to ascend sales. Extensive promotion for people to consume locally produced food to minimize the risk of diseases, noting that Seychelles has a high rate of cancer disease among its population. Additionally, the famers realise that with the many imported goods, many of our local fruit trees and traditional crops are losing recognition and becoming scarce? Many of our farmers are greatly lacking in technical inputs. Specialized infrastructure such as a slaughterhouse on the second main island is in dire need of equipment furnishing, having been given a new life by the Government in terms of infrastructure repair. With this key infrastructure missing on the island, the hands of our livestock farmers are tight considering they must find all means to produce meat for the population and try different ways to hygienically prepare meat products for sale. SeyFA has initiated dialogues with the Government who agreed to do renovation and then share the cost for specialized equipment and capacity building for users.