Picture: Arti and her husband Anesh on their farm
Agriculture is an important
engine of growth and poverty reduction and its importance cannot be emphasised
enough.
Aggregate data by statisticians
from around the world shows that women, comprise about 43 percent of the
agricultural labour force globally and in developing countries.
In Fiji, according to the 2020
National Agriculture Census Report, around 14.4 percent of women are engaged in
agricultural production.
Out of all the total women
farmers in Fiji, 25% are in the Western Division.
In a six acre farm tucked away in
Raiwasa in Rakiraki, 38-year-old Arti Devi has defied everything to continue
her farming activities for the past six years.
“Farming has always been my hobby
and I used to help my late father while growing up and my education and career
was founded through money earned from our farm,” said Arti.
She joined various workplaces
including the Fiji Police Force for a little over seven years, the Fiji Women's
Crisis Center for two years and then joined the Fiji Correction Service for
three months before finding her niche in farming.
“I felt something was missing
when I was working for the force, I enjoyed working for those institutions but
was not at peace until I returned to the land,” she said.
“I come from a farming background
and I have always loved to work alongside my father on the vegetable farm while
growing up.”
Married with three children, her
interest in farming gave her the privilege to return to her father’s land to
take the reins from him as his health was deteriorating.
In 2014, Arti and her husband
Anesh Kumar Singh started their farming journey as a couple on a small scale
and also doing backyard before becoming commercial farmers.
“We were based in Suva when my
father called me up and asked for me to return home and do farming which I
gladly accepted, we packed our stuff and moved to Rakiraki and I have not
regretted the decision we made ever since,” she said with a smile.
The first vegetable they planted
was chillies and they planted a wide variety of chillies with the bongo variety
on the top shelf.
“The piece of land that my father
gave for us to plant was filled with chillies and there was a huge variety,”
she said.
They would transport their
harvested chillies to the Suva market in their car and would take 10-20 bags of
bongo chillies twice a week and selling at $25 per kg. It was a really good
income for us.”
Their earnings enabled them to
buy a new van and then they purchased another three acres land and built a farm
house.
They expanded their farming to
assorted vegetables like English cabbage, Hawaiian pawpaw, eggplant, Okra, cucumber,
watermelon, cowpea and long bean.
“For our assorted vegetables we supply
to the Rakiraki, Tavua, Lautoka and Ba markets and also have a middleman buying
at our farm gate on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” explained Arti.
As with any other crop farm, the
biggest threat is pests and diseases. With the added expertise from her husband
who also has a farming background and continuous liaison with the Agriculture
Office in Rakiraki, they were able to control pests and diseases using organic
control practices.
The couple were assisted in 2018
under the Food Security Program with an irrigation kit worth $6,000 for their
vegetable farm. Their farm is not immune to the effects of drought and the
assistance included a rotovator machine to help with land preparation works and
vegetable seedlings.
The couple are determined to lift
their vegetable farming programme to another level in the near future
“We are working on purchasing a
tractor for land preparation works as we plan on going big,” said Arti.
“We have another three acres of
land which often faces water problems during the dry season. We plan to plant duruka
on that piece of land and substitute it with watermelon during the rainy
season.”
In 2022 alone the hard-working
couple harvested approximately $6,000 from the sale of watermelon.
They are also planning to expand
their market and to deliver their vegetable produce to the Suva market in
addition to the supply to the Rakiraki Market.
Arti is a farmer, a mother and a
community worker and has been multi-tasking her skills over the years, Most
importantly, she ensures that she covers all her bases well.
“I enjoy helping people and
working on the farm as it often eases the various stresses of life. I thank my
husband who is a police officer for always assisting me on the farm after work
in addition to the four casual laborers from Raiwasa village who are always
helping during land clearing and harvesting,” said the grateful Arti.
She also thanked the Ministry of
Agriculture for the assistance and advice rendered to her with regards to
growing her farm and she says, it has greatly impacted her life and her family.
“If you have land, make use of it
and if you work hard on your farm you will get enough, you can get $1,000 in a
week from it and not only that, you will also be able to eat fresh vegetables
on a daily basis thus increasing your health and wellbeing.”
The Ministry will continue to
recognize the contribution of women in the agriculture sector. As of today,
12,084 women farmers are registered in the National Farmers Database. This is
an increase from the 11,971 recorded in 2020. Also according to the 2020 Fiji
Agriculture Census Report, women farmers contributed $57.9 million to the total
agricultural production value.
The Ministry is encouraging more
women to visit the nearest agriculture station and talk to the staff on the
various programmes available and how they can be part of our vision in building
a sustainable,
competitive and resilient agriculture sector.
-ENDS-