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Communications |
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Speech by The Hon George Pullicino, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, during the APS Bank seminar on ‘Alternative products and processes for competitive agriculture and fisheries in Malta |
Date:
17/02/2006
The trend of producing alternative crops throughout has become more attractive to the European farmer during the last few years. The various factors that have stimulated interest in crop diversification in recent years include commodity price fluctuation, increased pesticide-resistance in pests, and losses in genetic biodiversity. At the same time, consumer dietary changes have generated new markets for alternative food products.
The same tendency was seen locally. It is evident that the local market is expanding for diverse and alternative products. This is providing increased opportunities to market non-conventional crops. Nevertheless, diversification is still in its early stages and practised by a few. More farmers are to be encouraged to embark onto alternative cropping as a buffer against traditional crops to counteract against a possible decrease or shift in demand of local traditional crops.
Alternative crops provide a number of advantages both from the production and marketing point of view. Apart from the fact that alternative crops can command higher prices due to the scarcity of the product on the market, diversifying can spread farmers' economic risk and exploit different niche markets. Over and above, alternative crops can soften impacts on environmental resources. These can be added to a rotation to break up insect pest, weed and disease cycles, to scavenge nutrients for other crops and/or to improve soil structure and fertility.
Furthermore, direct marketing of alternative crops creates local opportunities to process, package or sell new products. Through producers’ organisations, farmers can invest jointly to process and market such products. Specific operational programmes presented by producers’ organisations can be also financially assisted through EU funds.
The Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment is aware that experimenting with an alternative crop involves both risks and opportunities, from both the production and the marketing standpoints. Farm diversification using alternative crops requires considerable research and planning, from assessing available resources, to selecting potentially feasible crops, to exploring the crop market.
The need for more focused research in this area has also been felt by the Ministry. Research activities are being carried out within the Research and Development Centre at Għammieri. Among others, trials on the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants are ongoing. These trials are necessary not only to help the Ministry give better extension advice to the growers on such practices, but also to help the same growers to see the impacts, benefits and risks of such alternative systems and crops.
Identification and valuation of indigenous vegetables and fruit varieties is also being carried out. A number of EU-funded projects have included the clonal and sanitary selection and characterisation of local clones. The selection of such indigenous clones will not only help the conservation of local germplasm but will offer alternative varieties that can be cultivated.
Malta’s fishing industry has also been facing new challenges over recent years, particularly since our country’s accession to the European Union. Securing a balance between modernisation of our fleet, sustainable management of our fisheries resources and the safeguarding of the artisinal characteristics of Maltese fisheries has called for careful planning and responsible decision-taking which will shape the future of the industry.
The competition between the Maltese fishing fleet and the more industrial-type foreign fleets, fishing in the central Mediterranean is a reality which must be addressed and the Government is committed to safeguard the interest of our fishermen through legal and financial instruments of the EU and regional fisheries management organisations such as the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). It is also essential, however, that fishermen seek to promote their quality products and adopt new marketing strategies, and in this the Government can also assume an assisting role.
From the outset of accession negotiations with the EU, Malta clearly stated that it was culturally and socially important to protect local fisheries, which are predominantly artisinal, and that from an environmental point of view no increase in fishing effort within the 25-mile fisheries management zone should be allowed.
As you well know, Malta was successful in maintaining this zone on the basis of scientific evidence which demonstrated the presence of essential fish habitats within the zone and a sustainable fisheries exploitation rate. This was a bright start but it must be supplemented by further efforts from the fishermen themselves to reap the benefits from opportunities offered by the EU and coordinated by Government to alleviate the difficulties being experienced by the industry.
Though limited, Malta’s coastal zone is a valuable resource for several stakeholders and thus the interest of all must be considered in management plans. The artisanal fisheries community is practically dependent on the coastal zone and I can assure you that Government’s policy is to assign a high stakeholder status to this community in the ongoing process of the development of a sustainable use management strategy for the coastal zone.
I firmly believe in the coexistence of marine protected areas and artisanal fishing, with fishermen being directly involved in the establishment of such areas which would ultimately enhance their catches. The intimate relationship of Maltese fisheries with tourism and the quality catering industry also lays down criteria for a strategy to continue upgrading Malta’s coastline tourist facilities and attractions whilst boosting the fisheries sector. In addition, it is of utmost importance that large scale fishing and aquaculture continue to develop in harmony with artisanal fishing with a common goal – to exploit our marine resources in a sustainable manner with environmental, socio-economic and cultural considerations.
In conclusion, I feel that the Maltese agriculture and fisheries produce identity needs to be enhanced. We must portray ourselves to the rest of Europe as a country which has successfully managed its resources, conserved its traditional methods, developed our sectors in a sustainable manner and responded to the ever increasing demand for a variety of high-quality produce. We only need to make strides forward to market this product both locally and on the continent, as has been done with some of products already, in order to guarantee a bright future for these two sensitive, yet important sectors.
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