$800 for a tonne of rice in the country - Dr Mahendra Reddy

Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy has encouraged sugarcane farmers to complement their farm income and set aside one or two acres of land for rice production since the price of rice per tonne at the moment is $800.

While opening the Rice Field Day demonstration in Nawaicoba in Nadi, Dr Reddy says that each acre of rice could produce about 1.5 tonnes of paddy grain.

He says farmers need not worry about its market as Fiji Rice Limited would purchase rice at farm gate prices.

The Minister says that the Government wants to reduce the import bill for rice as on average Fiji imports $46.2 million of rice per year.

He adds $46.2 million is going out of the country in foreign currency, which means that US$20 million is going out every year for imported rice.

Dr Reddy says that acquiring 24,000 acres of land for rice production would be possible if the 12,000 sugarcane farmers set aside two acres of land each as this would also make the 80-90 per cent self-sufficiency rate achievable.