Reddy makes major announcements regarding food security and agriculture growth plan for the country

Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Mahendra Reddy has made major announcements regarding food security and agriculture growth plan for the country.

Dr. Reddy says they have distributed 11,602 seed packages across Fiji. This comprised of 4,774 packages in the Central Division, 979 in the Western Division, 4,782 in the Eastern and 150 in the Northern Division respectively and additionally, 917 seed packages were distributed to employees of various NGOs, entities, and organizations.

This comprised of 129,024 individual packs of various commodity seeds that have been distributed to date to the general public.

Dr. Reddy says this initiative will greatly enhance food security by giving Fijians direct access to nutritionally rich foods.

Dr. Reddy says since the launch of this seed package initiative, they have received calls from the corporate sector to provide a specific number of packages for their employees who have lost jobs.

He says they will re-package the existing back yard gardening seed package for these employees calling it as Corporate Employee Seed Package.

Dr. Reddy says they need some details as to how many employees have lost jobs and where the offices are and they will deliver the packages where the affected employees can pick them up.

Dr. Reddy also confirms they will be providing rice seeds up to 30kg (for 1-acre farms) to every sugarcane farmer.

He says they will assist them to mill their rice for home consumption by providing small portable rice mills close to their area when rice paddy is ready for milling.

Dr. Reddy adds they will also be providing rice seeds up to 30kg to every non-sugarcane farmer and will also assist them to mill their rice for home consumption by providing small portable rice mills close to their area when rice paddy is ready for milling.

They will also provide rice seeds to all 1,100 villages for community based rice farming.

The seeds will be provided following a signed commitment by the village Turaga-ni-Koro and the amount of rice seed to be provided will be equivalent to the population size of the village.

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.

He says they know that it can be done as the ago-climatic conditions in Fiji are exceptionally favourable for rice cultivation.

The Ministry will also provide every village with a set of three by twelve fruit tree seedlings that would also be provided with fruit trees to complement their nutritional requirement.

Dr. Reddy says in addition to this, they will endeavor to provide every interested household via expression of interest, six to twelve-day old chicks.

He says they expect households to then develop their poultry stock.

He adds the Ministry is also providing seeds and planting materials of one short term crop for ¼ acre of land and farmers can select from targeted crops such as Taro, Cassava, Kumala, Duruka, Eggplant, Chillies, Okra, Tomatoes, Maize, Bitter Gourd, Pigeon pea, Cow pea and Squash.

To date, they have distributed a total of 689 packages to farmers in the four divisions.

Dr. Reddy has also announced that they need investors who have their own machinery, technology, and land and are ready to provide planting material at no cost to the investor for the amount they require.

He says be it for ten acres or hundred acres, they will need advanced notice to organize the planting material and they will provide this progressively.

Dr. Reddy says the only requirement for the investor will be to replenish them the equivalent amount of planting material within three years, prioritize the construction and or upgrade of farm access roads and drainage, at the Ministry’s cost.

He says for these large scale commercial ventures, they will work with the Agro Marketing Authority, Fiji Rice Limited and Food Processors Fiji Limited to organize their market.

The Minister for Agriculture adds they will provide dedicated highly skilled technical officers to provide technical advice to the Commercial ventures.

The Ministry also has plans to establish fruit orchards across the country, with commodities such as Avocado, Guava, Mango, Dragon fruit and Breadfruit and Banana.

Dr. Reddy says the Ministry Agriculture also has an objective to increase production and productivity for goat, sheep, beef and dairy products in Fiji.

He says they are establishing new breeds for cattle, goats, and sheep to be given out to farmers and these new breeds will replace the low yielding breeds which have lost their original genetic traits due to inbreeding over time.

He adds over the next few months, they will be reviewing their approach on the dairy industry and explore pathways to achieve full potential in this sector.