Around 12 more farmers from Lomaivuna, Naitasiri have signed contracts with the Agro Marketing Authority.
Minister for Agriculture Dr. Mahendra Reddy said the new cluster formation would join the larger Lomaivuna Cluster that was earlier established to also provide supplies to AMA in an effort to expand the market and at the same time assist farmers in finding a market for their produce.
Dr. Reddy says the advantages of organizing a farming cluster are that farmers are like-minded, they grow similar crops, they will target the market and the Ministry will train them on compost heap preparation, land preparation, crop cultivation and pest management.
He says government was removing hurdles from farmers to ensure they fully concentrated on their land to achieve maximum output from it.
Dr Reddy further says what they are doing is bringing the market to them instead of them going to sell their root crops in Suva or Nausori markets adding they do not want the farmers to divert themselves away from their core business of farming.
The contract with AMA means farmers who sign up are committed to consistently supply a certain quantity of commodities and AMA would provide the transport to collect the produce from the farmer, and AMA has committed to buy these commodities at a fixed price; no matter how the market may perform, such as a reduction in price due to flooding of the market.
