Merewai farms for family
Cash for cultivation initiative helps with recovery
YOU will never miss Merewai Dorota’s smiling face when you visit the Sigatoka Municipal Market on Fridays and Saturdays.
The 31-year-old from Vunatova village has recently earned herself a table to sell her own vegetable produce to support her family.
During the weekdays, her mother will be there instead as Merewai spends those days assisting her brother at the family farm.
Merewai ventured into vegetable farming this year, a decision she has never regretted, after she was assisted under the Ministry of Agriculture’s Cash for Cultivation Initiative which is supported by the Australian Government and implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Fiji.
She was supported with $200 cash to help her recover from Tropical Cyclone Yasa late last year and Tropical Cyclone Ana earlier this year and was among 1000 farmers assisted in the first phase of the initiative across Fiji.
Under this initiative, farmers are provided cash to assist with land clearance, land preparation and the purchase of planting materials to reestablish a 1-acre plot.
“Keitou dau tei tavioka tuga ia ni mai vakacacani na cagilaba keitou sa tovolea yani na tei kakana draudrau ni totolo wale tu ga na kena qaravi me laukana kei na noda rawa ka mai kina.”
(We used to plant cassava and this was affected by the cyclone. When we received our assistance, we decided to try out vegetable farming as it takes only a few months to harvest and is also a quick way to earn cash)
Merewai, who lives with her parents and her brother’s family, said she used the money to plough the land and buy capsicum, cabbages and beans.
During the second outbreak of COVID-19, Merewai was able to supply crates of tomatoes to the Wainadoi border to be sold in Suva.
She is thankful to the Fijian and Australian governments for the assistance which helped in their recovery, provided food security and also supported their livelihood.
The Cash for Cultivation is an initiative of the Agriculture Ministry implemented by ADRA Fiji.
Australia’s assistance later funded the second phase of the initiative assisting 3000 affected farmers, giving them the choice to utilise the assistance on their priority needs whether to pay for labour, buy seedlings or crops, farming equipment or to meet whatever farming needs they have. is the communication officer for Adventists Development & Relief Agency Fiji and is a former journalist with this newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by this newspaper.