Farmers take up equity package
SEVEN commercial farmers have taken by the Commercial Farmers Equity Package (CFEP) offered by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Fiji Development Bank.
Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Waterways, Dr Mahendra Reddy, while delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament last week, said the CFEP initiative was to boost commercial agriculture development.
“This initiative and with collaboration of Fiji Development Bank for the first time, any farmers who want to take loan from FDB, let us say to construct a warehouse or to buy a tractor or an excavator, the Ministry will contribute 20 percent of equity to the grant of that loan,” Minister Reddy said.
“For example, if the farmer wants to take $100,000 loan from FDB, the Ministry will provide $20,000 as an equity contribution and farmers does not have to pay upfront that particular deposit as a grant.”
Minister Reddy said as of now, there were seven commercial farmers had taken up the initiatives with one farmer in Lautoka taking a loan of close to a quarter million dollars from FDB and the Ministry has contributed 20 per cent as an equity contribution.
He said for the current financial year, the Ministry has implemented another eight initiatives to scale up ongoing programmes and these include support to women in agriculture, establishment of hydroponic systems, protected agriculture, irrigation kits, Orchard Development Programme, Small Farming Equipment Programme, Land Clearing Farming Programme and provision of fencing kits to livestock farmers.
To ensure transparency and accountability on the selection of recipients considered, Minister Reddy said the Ministry has considered that online process in order to select the appropriate beneficiaries in order to get them to apply.
The benefit of the online portal ensures that:
• Everyone gets the opportunity to apply, no matter where they are, whether they are in Kadavu, Cicia, and so on as long as they have access to internet connection.
• The process of update is you enter the data on the online portal, the data immediately on
real time is received at the Headquarters.
• Application data is transferred without any delays.
He explained that previously the application form would be left with the Agriculture Extension Office and then went through several different Government offices and at times it got misplaced so having the online system has helped address this.
Minister Reddy added that seeing that there might be some farmers who do not access the internet, officers from the Ministry with tablets to help them to apply online are on
the ground and there are officers at the Agriculture Extension Office to assist those who do not know how to fill in the application.