By Tupuola Terry Tavita Leupolu

With Apia’s population of 35,000 projected to very well double in just 20 years, there is an alarming need to focus on the food security issues it will bring.

The continuing rise of urban dwellers – with no access to farmland – means more people will come to rely on the maketi (urban agricultural markets) for their daily sustenance.

The future permutations and critically, supply of the maketi therefore – as markets are in all shapes and forms – will be demand-driven as it will be market-oriented.

With macroeconomic policy aimed at increasing volume, quality and diversity of the farming industry, the immediate onus is to provide the necessary maketi infrastructure to sell produce and meet increasing demand.

Which brings us to the construction of the rebuilt maketi at Fugalei – expected to provide double the floor space previously available at the now torn-down marketplace.

The new market will not only ameliorate to some degree  food security concerns but will also  determine the country’s diet.

Apart from the crops section, this column will also like to see a dairy section, a bakery and a butchery. Having a dairy section can promote and introduce to our daily diet some of the value-added vintage products that can readily be produced in our homes and villages. Things like jams, honey, spreads (avocado is a favourite), cooking oils, local milk and freshly-squeezed juices. This country has been blessed with excellent seasons of orange harvests in recent years and it is surprising that nobody has gone into freshly-squeezed orange juice.

A butchery not only will make meats much more available and affordable for people, but with a little industry and experiment will help diversify that part of our carnivorous diet.

Goats were introduced to this country over a hundred years ago by the Germans. Goat meat is very popular in places like South Africa and Argentina. But it never really became a mainstay of our diet. Goats flourish here and perhaps it is time to reintroduce it at a commercial level. It will certainly diversify our current preference for cheap poultry and fatty mutton cuts and bully beef.

Emu meat we have been told is rich in protein and tastes like pork. Perhaps Agriculture can look into the likelihood of introducing other livestock to the country. Tropical sheep introduced some years ago from Fiji has been an overwhelming success.

The butchery is also an avenue to sell locally-produced hams, bacon, sausages and other meat products. Local meat manufacturers this column understands are struggling to break into the supermarket sector controlled by a few business people who are also into the meat business.

The ava bowl section should also remain (but limited to a couple of bowls) as well as the iconic panikeke stalls. Like our wooden buses, they are characters of the maketi, a meeting place for all cross-sections of the community.

But with a growing urban population, the Fugalei site will in a few years be hampered with pressing issues like traffic congestion, over crowdedness and a host of other problems that derive from it.

It is imperative therefore that we do not put all our eggs in one basket.

The Vaitele market – commissioned last year – was built to offload pressures from Fugalei and divert some of the traffic there. By far the fastest growing suburban region, Vaitele is a melting pot of the continuing urban flow.

Though currently hamstrung by the absence of public transport transitioning through there, no doubt Vaitele Market’s worth will be appreciated in years to come when pressures at Fugalei reaches a tipping point.

Another crops market should also be identified for the west of Apia servicing the burgeoning population that side of town as well as heading off traffic from west Upolu up to the Vailima-Afiamalu prefecture and the vast Siumu-Falealili region.

Some years ago, there were plans to integrate Leifiifi and Vaimauga into a single zonal college at Avele campus. If so, Leifiifi’s current location at Malifa could be very ideal for a crops market. There is certainly ample space there as well as a junction for road and foot traffic.

We are not urging government to act on these suggestions but merely presenting some ideas in the thinking and planning processes for the next fifty years.

Perhaps having a annual Market Day could help create a public awareness and appreciation of the importance of the marketplace.

If anything, it’s food for thought. Happy shopping.

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