Nineteen successful applicants from the Western Division have received their offer letters for the Ministry of Agriculture’s Hydroponics and Protected Agriculture programme.

Seven farmers from within the greater Nadi area, together with 5 from Ba, 3 in Tavua and Rakiraki respectively and one farmer from Nadrala in Sigatoka received their offer letters from the Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy earlier this week.

While handing over the offer letters to the recipients, Hon. Reddy stressed the objective of the supported and protected agriculture programmes was geared toward improving the year-round production of crops and vegetables for local markets, particularly for the tourism sector.

“Our tourism sector has started to open up and we don’t want to get the tourism sector to say that we don’t have enough supply from within, we want to supply to them and fulfil pretty much all the requirements but of course, there will be some fruits and vegetables that they will still have to import.

“We can save about $25million if we supply consistently to the tourism sector. Then the other issue with the tourism sector is, they would say, yes, you can supply during the season but what about the offseason?

“So to deal with the offseason, we want to extend the production to deal with the off-season, and therefore we want to provide supported and protected agriculture so that you can continue to supply during the offseason when there is not enough rain and there are issues with the weather conditions,” said Minister Reddy.

“So in this supported and protected agriculture, the three things that will play a critical role are plastic nurseries, greenhouse and hydroponics,” he added.

Recipients were advised to prepare their project site according to the assistance package dimensions as the materials would be delivered as soon as the supply of the items was in-country, with the required training to be provided by the supplier with the Ministry of Agriculture technical staff assisting with the setup.

“What you need to do is ensure there is a space ready for the setup of the plastic house, so be mindful of the dimensions of the plastic house (6mx15m) so you should have enough flat space and for hydroponics, its 8m x 2.2m,” said Minister Reddy.

“For hydroponics, you’ll need electricity, and water so the closer to the house the better, so you’ll need a lead wire ready and powerpoint and water source. So from there, within the system, everything will be provided for you to connect, the tank, the pump, the nutrient, the entire frame, cover and everything will be provided. 

“For the first cycle, the first crop, the nutrient will be provided but later on, you will have to buy, so for the first harvest, the entire nutrient pack will be provided worth $70, and after that, you will have to buy,” Hon. Reddy elaborated.

The protected agriculture recipients will receive a 6metre x 15metre plastic house with a frame and instead of the usual shylon cloth, it’ll be covered with plastic because that’ll ensure that water doesn’t sip in and it will come with additional accessories.

The hydroponics system will be 8metre x 2.2metre and can grow 400 plants at any one time and is scalable as the recipient can add on more shelving to the system, making it larger to cater for more plants to be grown within the system.

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