Govt assistance helps farmer to fulfil his passion
THE sheer determination and resilience to achieving one’s passion motivated 32-year-old, Niklesh Ravin, of Waidalice in Tailevu to fulfil his dream of building his own farm.
“When I stepped into the dairy industry, I did not have any particular sense of direction in what to do and how to progress,” he highlighted.
“I was also not part of any group with any farmer and was advised to join the cluster in order to share knowledge, skills and to receive help,” he added.
“I joined the farmers cluster group and later a team from the Ministry of Agriculture came to inspect the farm and continued to give me advice on what to do.”
“This is how I found out about the assistance provided by the Government to farmers and I also applied for it and was grateful to get help worth $12,000 which help build a proper shed included fencing materials,” he added.
In 2022, Mr Ravin received assistance from the Government in the form of a concrete dairy shed, improving the surrounding area as well.
“My shed was situated very far, was small, made informally and the surrounding area used to get swampy so we used to put sand on the ground to counter that,” he said.
“This is a 32-acre Crown (State) land which belongs to my family with the lease being renewed to 99-year term but I was the one who started this dairy business with five cows and now I have a total of 22.”
“I learned a lot from my uncle who also had a dairy farm and he helped me with one cow which turned into five and I also bought some more later as well,” Mr Ravin said.
He relayed that his mom used to look after the farm and but then she got seriously ill which affected looking after the herd.
“I used to have a day job and I left my job to look after the farm as it used to be very difficult to do both at the same time, and now, I have a taxi business and l manage my farm too,” Mr Ravin said.
“My farmers’ cluster members helped me a lot in terms of farming and in guiding me to what is profitable but it was always my hobby and passion to have my own dairy farm.”
“It would have been hard to progress without the Government’s intervention and I am thankful for the assistance provided to me which has eased my workload,” he commended.
Mr Ravin advised the youths that farming does not only bring in income but “you are your own boss”.
“I am selling milk to the Fiji Dairy Limited for $1.03 per litre and I am able to supply 50 litres of milk in a day,” he said.
“Ideally, we would like it if the price was raised a bit as we do have expenses at the farm but we are grateful that the Government provides us with feed as a subsidy,” he added.