The Agriculture Show for this year ended yesterday, bringing to a close the country’s premier agriculture event.
Farmers and fishers from all over the country had registered for the event and for three days, hundreds dropped by at the venue for a glimpse of what they had to show.
If anything, the abundance of root crops, vegetables and a strong showing by livestock farmers means food security for Samoa, for the next few years at least, is guaranteed.
One of the most popular competitions for this year was the Tilapia Cooking competition. With tilapia farms springing up all across the country, the Show presented fishers with the opportunity to put their cooking skills to the test.
Funded by Australian Community Aquaculture Projects, Aquaculture Specialists Dr. Timothy Pickering said the competition was a big hit, promoting another way of producing food.
Dr. Pickering said tilapia farming is one of the fastest growing trends because it is easy to farm the fish.
“This fish gives you a lot of leeway to farm, a very hearty variety that is adaptable to different types of feed and we had a taste of raw tilapia fish last Tuesday, and it’s pretty good.”
“So promoting the competition in cooking tilapia will also promote tilapia farming to the people of Samoa as well as the whole Pacific Island countries.”
“We would love to come again next year and help in preparing different recipes for cooking tilapia.”
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The competition was won by the family of Levusi, from Moamoa. They entered a deep fried as well as a barbequed tilapia.
Levusi and her daughter-in-law, Ruta Folau-Levi, have been farming tilapia for years.
As a thriving farmer, Mrs Folau-Levi says that, because tilapia farming is not labour intensive, it gives her enough time to concentrate on other commitments.
“Learning techniques like fish sampling helps farmers identify the right size of the fish to harvest,” she said.
“This is a welcome development for farmers who will be able to better respond to the market demand for fish and contribute towards improving food security in the country.”
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