Greenhouse Will Boost Farmer’s Yield

Salesh Chand’s plans to go full time with vegetable farming was injected with a timely lift recently.

To boost his yield he was recently handed two coils of greenhouse materials from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Now the 43-year-old farmer of Marasa outside Nadi town is optimistic he will start to bear much better yields three years after he made the decision to farm the land. He engages his small knit family of five into serious farming on a daily basis. This is mainly in the afternoon after school, otherwise he toils the land alone.

He said it had been three years now and it was a big change since he ventured into small-scale vegetable farming.

“Prior to that I was employed with a logging contractor and the realistic part of that job was during the rainy season of three to four months there was no logging because of the forest situation,” he said.

“What can we eat during those months of no work. Therefore I seriously thought hard about it and came up with the idea that it is better to work alone and be my own boss.” Mr Chand lives in a sugarcane farming community with his four brothers where only two brothers have a share in the farm.

“My brother gave me a patch of land so I have been planting dhania recently.

“The assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture is very handy since we live on a hilly place and it is too dry during this time of the year. “We used an old sari (Indian dress material) to use as greenhouse, but it was not that strong.” However, since the proper greenhouse material was provided it has helped him a lot.

He also uses other new available technologies that the ministry has been supplying to assist farmers. According to Mr Chand, in a good given week, he earns a decent $150 through the sale of dhania, but the big gain is when orders are placed by middlemen.

Advisory councillor Krishna Kumar said it was fortunate for farmers these days that the current Government was helping out. “Farmers like Salesh, who were not able to buy potato, can now afford to buy vehicles,” he said. “The Government of the day is spreading its wing to assist people in areas like farming.

The assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture is very handy since we live on a hilly place and it is too dry during this time of the year. Salesh Chand Farmer

Photo: Waisea Nasokia Salesh Chand, 43, a full-time farmer with his wife, Neelan Devi and son Viwan Chand while advisory councillor Krishna Kumar looks on in their green house set up in Marasa outside Nadi on August 14, 2018.