Wema villagers urged to treat farming as a business
Villagers of Wema in the province of Navosa have been encouraged to practice skills learnt during the training conducted through the Fiji Agricultural Partnerships Project (FAPP), in order to treat farming as a business. This was raised to them by Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management and Meteorological Services Inia Seruiratu while visiting FAPP project sites in Navosa earlier this week.
FAPP is a Government project under the Ministry of Agriculture with financial assistance from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) with an overall goal to reduce hardships in remote rural communities.
“We want farmers to take farming seriously; farming as a business and a career,” Mr Seruiratu said.
“For the growth of any business, you have to reinvest. We are working together, targeting the same goal with FAPP to lift your standard of living to the next level.” Minister Seruiratu elaborated the way forward was to bring the market to their door step and he urged the community to ensure a consistency in supply. “If we eat every day, we should also plant every day so there is consistency in supply as we cannot allow buyers to go back without any produce when they come right here,” the Minister said. “Your market will depend on what you have planted on your land.” Participant Fulori Ratukaiwai, 48, while sharing her sentiments said the training organised by FAPP was enlightening as it was also the first training that she could recall being held at Wema since marrying her husband who hails from the village. “The training that I have attended really challenged me to change the way I view farming,” said Mrs Ratukaiwai.
Mrs Ratukaiwai intends to plant vegetables on her land and to use the knowledge she learned from the training on vegetable gardening, land preparation, transplanting and hardening while doing so. “The most important thing that I have learned is how to go about preparing good seedlings,” she said.
Ministry of Agriculture