Mover And Shaker Kabukabu Endures
Seruwaia Kabukabu is a mover and shaker; four years ago the mother of two in her quest to support her husband’s dream, now wears four hats.
Mrs Kabukabu, 42, apart from being a mother and wife also runs a dairy farm, a canteen, a mushroom farm and she heads the Naitasiri Women in Dairy.
Originally from Maumi, Bau in Tailevu, Mrs Kabukabu’s husband in 2016 wanted to revive his family’s dairy business in Serea, Naitasiri that collapsed due to financial difficulties.
First she set up a family canteen in the village to help finance the recovery stage.
“We needed to register to be a milk supplier and that needed money,” Mrs Kabukabu said.
“With our savings from the canteen, our dalo sales and my husband’s income, we were able to buy five milking cows to restart the milk supplying business,” she said.
They now own 40 cattle of which 20 are milking cows.
“We had our first supply on September 16, 2017 were we were supplying 99 litres per week; we are now supplying 400 litres per week,” she said.
“We also practice calf rearing to quicken the number of cattle, especially for our milking cows.
“We spend $30 on basic needs and $20 for emergency cases. The advantage of living in the village is that most things are free and abundant in supply.
While cow diseases like Bovine Tuberculosis and Brucellosis are among the challenges they face on the farm, luckily for her, a New Zealand funded group Prime consultant assisted her with electric fence for disease control.
Her farm has been disease free the last two years. The other difficulty is poor drainage and unwanted weeds like the African tulips and guava trees.
“Fiji Women’s Fund (FWF) has assisted me to control these unwanted weeds,” she said.
Mushroom
Mrs Kabukabu also has a mushroom farming of which she supplies her harvest to the local market.
“We have diversified to mushroom farming to keep our finance secure during the low peak of milk production.
Naitasiri Women Dairy
Mrs Kabukabu heads the Naitasiri Women Dairy, which consists of 40 members from eight villages.
These women representatives are from Serea, Waimalua, Waidracia, Nabaitavo, Lutu, Taulevu, Vuisiga and Nabaitavo.
The women group initially started with six members, there are 40 members now.
Funding
Funded by FWF, the group receives funding for farming tools and equipment to help carry out its solesolevaki model.
Farming equipment such as weedicides, gumboots, tank sprays, digging forks, spades, weeding knives and wheelbarrows can be purchased also through this model.
Mrs Kabukabu said: “Women are divided into their village groups and meet every Monday on the last week of every month for their progressive report on work on their farms. FWF also assists in carrying out workshops like Capacity building, communication, gender equality and financial literacy.
The group is now rearing 45 female calves for their milk products bearing their branding.
Ministry of Agriculture
The group is also supported through the Ministry of Agriculture with fencing materials, an office space at Vunidawa and technical support.
Mrs Kabukabu’s advice is to do whatever you do with passion and love from the heart which will make your business survive.
Happy Women Equality Day to our women readers!