Picture: Proud Koro Youth Club members in front of their new carrier with Agriculture Locality Officer, Samisoni Ledua (far right, standing, in blue polo tshirt) with Agriculture Officer – Farm Management West, Lani Kunadua (2nd right, standing, at the back in green tshirt). Club President, Sevuloni Garodua is at the back, far left, standing in brown tshirt.
Patience
and being of one mind and one goal were the keys to the success of a youth
group that managed to deposit their three tonne truck after 11 years of hard
work and sheer determination.
Koro Youth
Club is located in the village of Koro, in the district of Savatu, in the Ba
Province.
Reaching
Koro requires traveling down from the Nadarivatu highlands through snake-like
winded turns until one reaches the origins of the Ba River.
The Club’s
newly elected President, Sevuloni Garodua, 27, explained in i-taukei the Club begin
in 2010 with a current membership of more than 20.
Since its
inception, the goal was always focused on purchasing a vehicle to ease
transport challenges faced by the village.
Tavua is
the nearest town and for those who want to market their produce, each person
must pay $13 one way to secure a seat.
The
carrier that used to service Koro Village was not from there, so prior
arrangements were usually made to ensure it came to take them to Tavua.
However,
Sevuloni said since their new carrier arrived, the Club has continued to charge
the same fare to their fellow villagers, as a way to not only generate income but
to also assist in paying off the balance of about $50k of their most prized
asset. This, he added, was now the Club’s next goal.
He said
members held fundraising drives to start off their pool of funds. Members also
planted yaqona, vudi, and bananas to also assist in raking in funds for the
Club towards this project. They managed to collect $2k for these initiatives.
Around
July of this year, they harvested 20 yaqona plants of nine to ten years which
they sold and together with the funds already collected, they managed to
finally reach their target of $30k for their deposit.
He said
they only managed to reach their goal, after 11 years since the Club was
formed, because everyone was of one mind, one goal, and moved forward together.
Sevuloni said achieving goals through farming was possible because of the
available resource of land, labour, and unity within the group.
Koro Youth
Club was provided technical advisory services in 2017 by the Ministry of
Agriculture including an Extension and Farm Management training that was
co-facilitated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
These
helped the group stay focused on their goals as youths were trained to set and
achieve business targets at certain timelines. The Farm Management Program is
specifically focused on capacity building of farmers and Agriculture extension
officers on farm management.
The
Ministry acknowledges that farmers need to possess the skills to be able to
respond to market changes and to manage their farms both effectively and
profitably to take advantage of opportunities to increase income. Therefore,
the Program is aimed promoting farming as a business whilst simultaneously
ensuring the adoption of sustainable farming systems or smart agriculture.
-Ends-