Sala Sets Cane Yield Record
Sixty-three-year-old Salaseini Koroi is most likely the first indigenous female cane farmer to produce 211 tonnes of sugarcane from four acres of land.
Her record was set last season.
She is aiming for another good season.
She attributes her success to sheer hard work, her husband’s help, and the assistance of neighbouring Indo-Fijian farmers at Buabua, Lautoka, who guided her since she purchased the farm some years ago.Mrs Koroi and her husband are retired teachers.
The couple hail from Kadavu, while Mrs Koroi’s maternal links are in Sorokoba, Ba.
She provided widows of nearby Vitogo Village recently with cane seedlings, in a bid to get them into cane farming.
History
Mrs Koroi was raised at her mother’s village at Wavuwavu, Ba, where her family had a cane farm.
Learning to farm and cut cane as a child in Ba has since taken her a long way through her twilight years, she said.
During their days as teachers at Vitogo District
School, Lautoka, the couple met with school committee landowner and widow Adi Ceva Laqo.
Adi Ceva’s husband left the 10 acres land under mortgage with Cane Farmers’ Co-Operative Savings And Loans Association Limited.
Adi Ceva transferred land ownership to Mrs Koroi, telling her to stay on at the farm.
Retirement
Mr and Mrs Koroi retired in 2013 to renovate and extend the farm house.
It took years to adjust to farm life, after leaving the teaching career, she said.
The land was fallow, prompting the couple to invest part of their retirement funds in cane farming in 2012, from which they later harvested close to 30 tonnes of sugar cane.
Sugar cane farming has since become a family affair. She believes there is a successful future in cane farming, for retirees and widows.