Picture: Elenoa at her farm in Sabeto, Nadi.
Her love for farming made her
take a bold step and take it up as a full time job.
Elenoa Daunivalu, 45, of Tabusuka
Farm located near the zip line in Sabeto, Nadi is a new farmer. She only just
began to take up farming on a semi-commercial scale on her recently leased
land.
Originally, from Seaqaqa, Macuata,
Elenoa has called Nadi her home for the last 20 years. But farming has always
been part of her growing up, so taking it up full time was something she was
ready to do.
She leased nine acres of land
from Na Momo Levu na Tui Sabeto two
years ago and at the moment is utilizing only four acres, growing a variety of
both long term and short term cash crops. She plants kumala, yams, cassava,
lemon grass, long beans, eggplants, bananas, pumpkins, pineapples, and has also
harvested corn.
“I harvested kumala and made
$1,500 from it. My long term plan is to go semi-commercial and I have received
advice to concentrate on one or two commodities when I do.”
Elenoa urged other women who had
yet to take up this venture, to do so.
“Farming is a passion. Farming is not for the
faint-hearted. It comes with perseverance and knowing that despite the
hardships, you will face it with the belief that you will overcome it. With
farming, there will be shortcomings, but overcoming it and moving on is key,”
she explained.
“It’s a very good feeling, when you plant
things and you see it growing. It gives me that satisfaction to see things
blossoming and coming into fruition,” Elenoa said.
“I grew to love it, as we always
had a backyard garden when growing up. Farming was something that I inherited from
my parents when we moved around as my dad was a civil servant,” she explained.
Like all farmers, she is at her
farm by 6am daily working all day under the scorching sun with breaks taken in
between for meals and discussions with her two farm hands, whom she has
employed.
Whilst she has drums filled with
water to assist with her farming, she says, it would be convenient for her if
she has a drip irrigation system. She has done her research on this and found
the ones readily available were not the ones she was after.
She maintains a clean farm and swears
by the old proverb ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’.
Elenoa
thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for assisting her with river bank
preservation by providing fruit trees valued at $2,275, soil testing, and
advisory services.
-ENDS-