Sabeto rejoices at Agriculture move
The signing of Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) contracts by a chiefly household and a Methodist Church minister could be the saving grace for many unemployed people of Sabeto Village, in Nadi.
The signing of the contractual agreements was done by AMA chief executive officer, Alvin Sharma, Ratu Josaia Nabukatavatava, and Reverend Peni Ketebaca.
Minister for Agriculture, Mahendra Reddy, officiated at the contract signing which now opens doors for villagers to utilise the large number of vacant land it has.
Josaia Naikuria, the spokesman for the chiefly household of Tui Sabeto, said this was a blessing for the people of Sabeto.
“Of the seven tribes in
Sabeto, they are close to 200 people who have been left unemployed, as most of them worked at Nadi International Airport and at resorts and hotels here on the mainland and in the Mamanuca Group.
“Since COVID-19 came in, they have now been in the village and with this initiative it will open new doors for everyone,” Mr Naikuria said.
“We have some villagers selling beside the road, but this is much bigger.
The good thing is that we don’t have to look for markets, as AMA will do that.
“We have a lot of vacant land and we appreciate the Ministry of Agriculture coming to help us prepare the land and give us seedlings to plant.
“This is a big help – the Tui Sabeto and talatala have signed the agreement, which means the blessings have been given by the vanua and the church.”
Meanwhile, Mr Reddy said Fiji’s primary sector was important especially during these times.
“The momentum of agriculture has increased since COVID-19,” Mr Reddy added.
“One good thing that COVID-19 did was bring the people’s interest back to agriculture.”
Mr Reddy said it was sad that of all the land in Fiji available for agriculture, only 20 per cent was utilised.
He emphasised the ministry’s two key points which was food security for the family, and the expansion of commercial agriculture where the market came first and home after.
He said he was looking at expanding the growing of kava in the western division.