The Ministry of Agriculture has launched a rehabilitation program for rice farmers in the Northern Division that aims at elevating the rice industry after the Tropical Cyclone Yasa.
Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy says this program will include land preparation work for rice farming and will be active for the next 10 weeks.
Reddy says under the program farmers will only have to pay a subsidized rate of $15 for one hour and the remainder of the cost will be paid by the Ministry, in partnership with Fiji Rice Limited.
The Minister says land preparation work will be outsourced to local tractor owners throughout Vanua Levu who will be willing to work with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Reddy highlighted that farmers who lost all their rice seeds during the cyclone will be able to get new stock from the Ministry.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s teams have distributed 1,703 chicks, 2,702kg chicken feed, 1,785 bele cuttings, 200 packaged seed and 3,410 kumala cuttings to 10 affected villages in North.
Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Ritesh Dass says these villages include Coboi Settlement, Cogea Village, Koroinasolo Village, Luvuluvu Settlement, Nasuva Settlement, Navunievu Village, Nawailevu Village, Vatubogi Settlement, Bua Village and Votua Village.
He says the Ministry of Agriculture has deployed over 50 personnel with vehicles, equipment and chainsaws to support the teams in the affected areas.
Dass says their immediate focus is on food security response and they have developed a plan prioritizing 15,000 households in impacted zones.
He says they are distributing one vegetable seed package which has 5 varieties of seeds, 10 kumala cuttings and bele cuttings per household.
Dass says the vet teams established in the North have been visiting farms to provide free medical clinics and extension teams are providing direct assistance to farmers with clearance and burial of dead livestock.
This assistance program will run for the next three to four months.
