Building the resilience of Fiji’s dairy industry
The Pacific Islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change and as the impacts intensify, food systems and food security will be drastically affected across the region.
So how do you protect and improve food systems such as national dairy production to withstand the challenges of a changing climate?
That is a question being asked by 2022 PASS-CR scholar Wati Tomasi Mocevakaca – a question that is set to expand the focus and depth of Wati’s agricultural research as the winner of a 2022 ACIAR Future Thinkers’ Award.
Wati is an Agricultural Science Masters student at Fiji National University, researching the Prevalence and antibiotics sensitivity patterns of bacteria isolated from calf diarrhoea, as part of an ACIAR initiative centred on Enhancing the management of antimicrobial resistance in Fiji.
Antimicrobial resistance, commonly known as AMR, underpins the emergence of ‘superbugs’ that cannot be remedied or contained by standard treatments. It is a major global health issue that threatens humans, animals, and food systems around the world.
“We suspect that antimicrobial resistance could be the basis of why our livestock output is declining in Fiji,” Wati explained.
“It is the reason we are still importing large quantities of dairy products, and it’s responsible for the uptick in market prices for those products.”
Wati is working to curb AMR in Fiji by monitoring antibiotic sensitivity in dairy calves, but it’s not the only urgent issue threatening agricultural systems and food security: “The Pacific Islands face the threat and impacts of climate change the most, and that too is a key reason that Fiji’s dairy industry is not up to par,” she explained.
“Climate change already directly disrupts our food value chain and livelihoods, and I see a clear need and opportunity to address that by further researching and making improvements to the dairy industry.”
Earlier this year, Wati presented that need and opportunity in a research proposal for the 2022 ACIAR Future Thinkers’ Awards for Pacific Climate Resilience and was named one of three inaugural winners of the Award.
Wati and fellow awardees with Veronica Doerr, ACIAR Research Program Manager for Climate Climate.
Investing in Climate Resilience for the Pacific agricultural research sector
The Future Thinkers’ Award program was launched in 2022 to give PASS-CR scholars additional capacity building and funding opportunities to integrate change climate knowledge and tools into their research.
The Awards are designed to enhance scholars’ specific skills and knowledge of climate change methodologies and will equip them to produce research that directly influences planning and decision making at a community, national and regional level.
“I have always been interested in the climate change field and I knew from the outset that incorporating a specific climate lens would be hugely beneficial to the research I’m doing,” Wati said.
As a Future Thinker Awardee, Wati will expand her PASS-CR research to explore farmers’ perceptions of climate variability and risk, and how that impacts dairy management practices.
According to Wati’s research, Fiji milk production has been declining year by year due to climatic changes. Climatic risks impact the health, physiology, and reproduction of livestock, and threaten the availability of pastureland for grazing and fodder harvesting.
Wati will work with farmers to consider how these climatic risks can be better identified and managed within farming systems to increase livestock and dairy production and reduce Fiji’s reliance on imported products.
By the end of the project, farmers will have a stronger understanding of how climate change and variability affect their production and value chain system.
“I believe this will be the first research of this kind on how climate change affects the dairy industry so this research will become baseline data for future references to help the dairy farmers and Fiji,” Wati said.
Developing strong research proposals
Capacity building is at the heart of the PASS-CR program and woven into the design of the Future Thinkers’ Awards, beginning with the application process.
Applicants received training on how to effectively integrate gender and climate change elements into research, along with mentoring opportunities with Dr Daniela Medina, ACPIR’s PASS-CR Climate Change Lead..
“I scheduled three one-on-one consultations and appreciate Dani’s patience in teaching me how to develop a strong proposal – especially setting out the climate impact chains within my study of interest.
I didn’t understand the technical terms initially, and I had to do intensive research in that area,” Wati said.
“The whole process was eye opening. It gave me the chance to step up my research skills and go the extra mile.”
Since receiving the Future Thinkers’ Award in September, Wati has dived straight into the new project:
“I am thrilled and thankful to be a given a chance to further my Masters’ research in climate change adaptation and I look forward to meeting fellow enthusiast in the field!”
