Picture : Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation for Pacific H E Sujiro Seam (left) hands the key to the farmers of Madhuvani.

Up to 80 farmers will directly benefit from using combine rice harvesters handed over at a ceremony held at Madhuvani Rakiraki yesterday. 

Funded by the European Union, the three combine rice harvesters will be used by the Madhuvani Rice Cluster, Barotu Rice Cluster and Manisogosogo and Vunivikalowa Rice farmers’ cluster.

The handover of equipment was part of the Pro-Resilient Fiji project which is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to support the Ministry of Agriculture’s wider aim to ensure food and income security for Fijian farmers.

“Today will be very special to our farmers here at Madhuvani, gone are the days when rice farming was operated manually and taken up only to supplement food security,” said Minister for Agriculture Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy while officiating the handing over on Thursday (11.03.21) at Madhuvani.

“It is time to mechanize rice production and the Ministry of Agriculture is ready to support farmers who are willing to get on board and expand their rice production. Therefore, I will encourage not only our farmers here at Madhuvani but throughout Fiji to consider rice farming and work with the Ministry on its upcoming plan to grow Fiji’s Rice Industry,” said Hon. Reddy.

He also expressed his appreciation to the European Union and the FAO for ensuring the realization of the project that will be felt by farmers’ as it would go a long way in enhancing farmer’s livelihoods and promoting economic sustainability through growth in agricultural production.

Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation for Pacific H.E Sujiro Seam highlighted the importance of building resilience of Fijian communities to build their capacity to face whatever situation that would be encountered.

“When we choose a sector, when we choose a project, we don’t do it randomly, it may sound random in some instances because we do a little bit of everything but whatever we do in Fiji or in the rest of the world is aligned to the priorities of the country and I am happy that we’ve worked very well with the Ministry of Agriculture and we make agriculture a priority because it’s a priority for Fiji, and if it’s a priority for Fiji, then it becomes a priority of the European action in Fiji,” said H.E Seam.

H.E Seam stated that the choice to partner with the FAO was self-evident because it was a farming project and the organisation’s expertise to assist in the project was critical in building strong partnership between organisations.

“The main point is to make a difference in the community and I think we have managed to achieve that here, we’re improving lives and we’re giving you opportunities that you would not have had without this project, so we work for the communities,” said H.E Seam.

Although Fiji has averted major health impacts of COVID-19 to date, the global pandemic has nonetheless significantly affected the lives and livelihoods of many Fijians.

The COVID-19 crisis is affecting the food systems and economy of Fiji with direct impact on the food and nutrition security of the population.

 A component of FAO’s Pro-Resilient Fiji project focuses on ensuring food and nutrition security of affected Fijian farmers in securing the village rice production and value chain, village nutritional security, and household long-term food security.

Assistant FAO Representative Ms. Joann Young highlighted the strong partnership between FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture and EU: “This continuous support has been instrumental to enable reprogramming of our activities in view of the ongoing global economic recession. This partnership provided FAO with the required flexibility to assist directly the rice farmers to improve incomes of rice producers and provide affordable food to all Fijians”.

The FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture through the EU financial support has secured 40 combine rice harvesters and 1,100 rice mills (for a total value of approximately FJ$1.1 million) to be distributed all over Fiji.

The handing over of combined Rice Harvesters will resolve most challenges faced by farmers such as limited labour for harvesting.  The combined harvester provides an opportunity to, increase Rice planting area, enhance development of Rice production, and drive the industry to a Commercial platform that will improve Fiji’s self-sufficiency level.

This will support cluster farmers and communities engaged in subsistence, semi commercial and commercial rice farming for food security and income generation in Fiji.

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