This is an edited transcript of the presentation by ICDP Suva Hub Coordinator Salote Waqairatu-Waqainabete at the ICDP Dialogue “Count Her In: Recognising women’s roles in strengthening farmer organisations in the Pacific” held online on 15 May 2025. The full Dialogue report is available here.

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Opening Remarks and Reflections on Women in Agriculture and Aquaculture

“I think I’ll start off this morning with a specific message to all of you. It’s my honour and joy to welcome each and every one of you to this important online dialogue, wherever you may be joining us from, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and even beyond. A warm welcome to all of you, and thank you for making the time to attend this event that connects us across our Blue Pacific.

Our land and sea have always sustained us, but it is our people who give life to the land. Among them are our women: our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and our grandmothers. Who have long stood as the quiet strength behind our food systems, our families and our communities.

Today, we are here to recognise their contributions in strengthening farm organisations, to honour their leadership, to elevate their voices and to commit to a more inclusive future for agriculture and rural development in our region.

Let this space be a Talanoa, a respectful place of sharing, where we learn from each other, challenge ourselves and move forward grounded in the values that bind us as the ICDP community and as Pacific peoples. Nakamalebu, and thank you again for your time this morning. And thank you as well for the kind introduction. Sometimes, I get lost in the work that I do myself.

So I’ve had the privilege of working alongside a number of women in both the agriculture and aquaculture sectors. Today, though, I’ll be talking primarily about my experience as an agribusiness researcher, particularly the lessons I’ve learned through a current ACIAR-funded project.

For those unfamiliar, ACIAR is the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. This project is in partnership with the University of Adelaide, the University of the Sunshine Coast, Southern Cross University, the Pacific Island Farmers Organisation Network, and several farm organisations. I’ll be highlighting two in particular: the Tilapia Fiji Farmers Association, a group of fish farmers here in Fiji, and, as Annaliese will discuss later, the Fiji Beekeepers Association.

Aquaculture, as a growing part of agriculture in Fiji, still sees women remaining largely invisible in data, in production figures and in policy discussions. Their contributions continue to go unrecognised. I’m speaking mostly from an aquaculture perspective, but the same is often true across agriculture.

In February of this year, a group of women from two major cooperatives, a women’s cooperative and a lady farmers’ group, came together during a UNDP-funded event. One clear takeaway was that women in agriculture in Fiji and other parts of the Pacific still lack sufficient support. There is a real need to create collaborative spaces for women, spaces where they can share resources, improve data collection, and, with better data, inform planning and policy.

Today, I’ll be sharing some of my experience working with the Tilapia Fiji Farmers Association and the support work I’ve done to help build their capacity. I’ll touch on strengths, weaknesses, areas where more data is needed, and lessons learned, especially how we can better support women’s roles in farm organisations and help make their work more visible.

From my experience, women tend to excel in administrative roles. They strengthen networks, foster collaboration, and are active in marketing. They involve youth and engage the community. However, simply having women in leadership roles doesn’t mean their voices are heard. There must be the right support structures to ensure their decisions have influence.

In the Tilapia group, a female president was nominated by a largely male membership because her farm had already demonstrated strong economic contributions. When women’s leadership leads to visible economic outcomes, their influence increases.

I’ve also had conversations with women in the floriculture industry, another sector where women’s contributions are often invisible, despite significant economic value, particularly to tourism. Even when economic benefits are clear, we still need champions who will recognise and validate women’s work.

In some agricultural sectors, we’re seeing an ageing farmer population. This presents an opportunity: women often bring youth into the fold, whether their own children or other young people. This involvement can rejuvenate sectors with ageing workforces.

However, farm organisations, especially in aquaculture, are relatively new and distinct from traditional cooperatives. They require targeted technical and governance training. In one cooperative in Sabusa, for example, when the female leader received technical support, it boosted both women’s potential and the sustainability of the organisation.

Women tend to have different leadership and operational styles than men, more collaborative and community-focused, but they still need guidance on effective communication, information sharing and economic planning. These needs are not unique to women; they’re sector-wide. But targeted technical and governance training is essential.

Mentorship is another key area. Women leaders benefit from mentoring, particularly from other women who understand their challenges. Mentorship strengthens confidence, decision-making, and long-term sustainability.

Women are natural community builders. With the right support, this strength can be translated into economic gains.

Finally, we need to see a policy change. In Fiji’s aquaculture development plan and other Pacific policies for agriculture and fisheries, there is limited recognition of women’s labour and training needs. In 2021, research by the Wildlife Conservation Society and others helped quantify women fishers’ contributions in Fiji across 11 provinces. That kind of data is vital for policy and planning.

To summarise: women bring unique strengths to farm organisations, leadership, collaboration and networking. But they are still under-supported, largely due to a lack of data and resources. To move forward, we need targeted technical and governance training, stronger data collection and meaningful mentorship programs.”