Picture: Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy and ADRA Fiji Country Director Iliapi Tuwai give the thumbs up.

The Ministry of Agriculture has been inundated with requests for home gardening seed packages and this overwhelming response has been encouraging.

This was shared by the Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy during a press conference yesterday.

“Over the last 4 weeks, we have distributed close 11,000 seed packs to 11,000 households and we have been very encouraged with the response that we have received from Fijian households,” he said.

“We note that there have been households that have called us, our extension office, our staff, myself, our Permanent Secretary to get these seed packs so that they can utilise the small amount of land around their homes to grow fresh produce, and we thank you for that,” added Hon. Reddy.

He also pleaded with households that have yet to receive their seeds to remain patient as they may have missed out due to some factors; “And we want to encourage other households who were not able to receive the seed packs, probably due to our officers not being able to reach them or they got missed out for some reason, just to let us know, they can call our helpline on 1523 and just give us your phone number and our staff will then call you to get details of your location.”

“We have made very good progress with regard to the distribution of home gardening seed packages to households who would want to engage themselves to secure food for their household, as well as utilise the free time that they have as they may be facing challenges during this pandemic, being locked in the containment zones.”

In comparison, the Ministry had distributed approximately 50,000 seed packages over a 12 month period in 2020 but in the span of one month, it has already delivered 11,000 seed packages to the same number of doorsteps.

“And as I’ve said, we are very encouraged to see the response, over the last 4 weeks, we were able to distribute 11,000 seed packs to 11,000 households, and last year over the COVID-19 pandemic, we distributed, over a 12 month period, 50,000 packs to 50,000 households, but in this short period, of just within a month, if you rate it, we’ve pretty much doubled the number of households who have received this assistance over a 4-week period, so we want to thank all those households and we are very encouraged with the positive response we are getting from these households, the positive comments and feedback,” said Minister Reddy.

The distribution of home gardening seed packages is continuing with the emphasis being placed on the locked-down areas of the country, particularly on Viti Levu.

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