Farmers are being urged to use one acre of their land to plant rice to uplift the rice sector in the economy.
Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy says to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production a total of 24,000 acres of land with 2 crops per year is needed and currently, only 7000 acres of land is under rice cultivation.
He says Fiji imported $42.6m worth of rice last year, and this is equivalent to around 40,000 metric tonnes of rice.
Dr Reddy adds under the Rice Planting Initiative for Sugarcane Farmers that was launched in Lautoka last week, each sugarcane farmer will be provided with seeds of improved high yielding varieties that could be grown under rain fed climatic conditions.
He says this will provide food and increase income for sugarcane farmers as it has been proven that rice can be rotated with sugarcane.
He adds they are trying to revitalise the rice farming in sugarcane farming communities as history depicts that this community had been doing this in the recent years.
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