ReliefWeb

STATEMENT FROM THE HONORABLE DAVID TOSUL (M..)
VANUATU MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE
18 March 2015

The Category 5 Cyclone Pam that ripped through our island nation of Vanuatu on 13 and 14 March 2015 has severely impacted the ability of our population to feed itself.

Aerial and on-ground assessments confirm that bananas and other fruiting trees have been destroyed outright. Our leafy vegetables are decimated. Even worse, our staple root crops have been irreparably damaged by the storm leaving them now rotting in the soil.

In short, our agricultural experts estimate that Vanuatu's people will run out of food in less than one week from today, and our Government must start distributions immediately.

There is a limited quantity of locally available stocks of imported foods and the Government of Vanuatu desperately and urgently needs an initial investment of no less than 2 million US dollars of financial aid to purchase these goods and ship them to the most affected islands. The Government is establishing an emergency food account for financial contributions from our friends around the world.

Unfortunately, local stores of emergency food will only last approximately 8 days (until the end of March, and our local suppliers cannot get more food until the end of April.

Thus the Government of Vanuatu also urgently requests in-kind food aid of rice, biscuits and tinned protein through the end of June 2015 when are seeds and newly planted crops are harvestable.

Our people are humbled by and extremely grateful for the outpouring of global support for Vanuatu and ask that all our partners and friends to continue to follow Government aid coordination protocols.
Thank you and God Bless Vanuatu.

Hon. David TOSUL Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Bio Security