166 sugarcane farmers to venture into Rice Farming

In a bid to improve rice production in the country, 166 sugarcane farmers in the Western Division will venture into rice farming.

While speaking at the launching of the Rice Planting Initiative for Sugarcane farmers at the Sugar Research Institute of Fiji in Lautoka, Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Dr Mahendra Reddy highlighted that under this initiative, each sugarcane farmer is encouraged to have at least one acre of land used for rice farming, and the Ministry would provide them with seeds of improved high yielding varieties that could be grown under rain fed climatic conditions.

The Minister says the Fiji Sugar Corporation has more than 12,000 farmers who would be able to assist in rice production in the country if they were provided with rice seeds.

Dr Reddy elaborated that they will provide 30 kilograms of rice seeds at no cost to every sugarcane farmer.

He says they would like each sugarcane farmer to plant rice as a supplementary and complementary crop that can supplement for their food and income security as it has also been proven to be a good complementary crop rotation with sugarcane.

The Minister adds that they have achieved around 66 percent self-sufficiency of rice production before and this can be done again as the agro-climatic conditions in Fiji are exceptionally favourable for rice cultivation.

Dr Reddy says that we have around 7000 acres of land under rice cultivation and to achieve self-sufficiency, a total of 24,000 acres of land with 2 crops per year is needed.

He says the cultivation of rice is not new to the cane farming communities as historically every farming entity, especially sugarcane farming households were self-sufficient.

Dr Reddy also handed over 5 tonnes of rice paddy seeds to the FSC which then will be distributed to the 166 farmers.

In 2019, Fiji imported $42.6m worth of rice, equivalent to around 40,000 metric tonnes of rice. About 8,000 metric tonnes of rice is produced and consumed locally and historically, Fiji has achieved around 66% self-sufficiency of rice production.