This was revealed by the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Frank Wickham in a workshop in Nadi, Fiji, where he is attending the heads of agriculture and forestry meeting.

He says that the government has started a similar initiative with women, but not quite yet with the country's youth.

Mr. Wickham says it is a region-wide problem that youths are not too attracted to agriculture.

But he says governments will find ways to attract the youth population to be interested and more involved in agriculture for the purpose of their own business and food security.

"The government is now starting to look at how we can engage the youth more and one way could be providing small project opportunities for youths. We are now looking at how we can perhaps provide a quarter of our government support to the agriculture sector to support youths that come up with some initiatives."