Picture: Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy and Ministry staff with the recipients of the fencing kit materials.

“We’re far behind in terms of where we should be with regards to livestock production and expansion, we need to secure our sheep, goat, dairy, and beef industries.”

This was shared by Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy when distributing fencing kit materials to 15 recipients of the Commercial Agriculture Development programme – Fencing Kits at the Ministry’s Lekutu, Bua office last week.

Minister Reddy elaborated that even though there was certain livestock products that Fiji was self-sufficient in, such as poultry, there remained a large expanse between other local livestock production as compared in terms of imported livestock products for local consumption.

“We’ve done remarkably well with regards to poultry production, we are 100% self-sufficient with respect to poultry products however we are way behind with regard to the production of sheep meat, goat meat, beef meat and dairy products, and today we are here to provide leverage to you, our sheep and goat farmers so that you can expand your livestock holding.

“We’re importing about 99% of lamb meat from New Zealand, and we’re importing about 40% of goat meat that we are consuming in Fiji, we’ve got the right weather conditions, we’ve got the pasture, we’ve got the land. There is enormous opportunity where we can expand production of both goat and sheep but without having paddocks we can’t do that,” said Hon. Reddy.

“There is an extent to which people can grow goat and sheep without having the proper paddocks so our aim is to migrate our small subsistence farmers into medium and large holding but to do that, we will need to provide them with fencing kits.

“So today, we are launching the awarding for fencing kits to livestock farmers in Fiji and we’re launching it here in Lekutu, Bua. You are the first lot to receive fencing kits in this financial year, no one else in this financial year has received fencing kits, you’re the first lot and we’re looking at close to 600 farmers who will be receiving this and we want to see that you immediately take this and start erecting paddocks on your farms and raise your livestock be it sheep or goat or beef cattle which we will giving later on,” he shared.

“We’re very excited with the difference that will be made in terms of expanding our livestock production in Fiji and I want you to understand that just developing paddocks and moving the animals in the paddocks is not enough to expand livestock, you have to do pasture management actively, you have to do livestock health and management actively, you have to build sheds for goats and sheep, you have to look at other supplementary feeds, hygiene management, so we’re expecting that you will put in additional input to make this a successful commercial venture,” Minister Reddy said.

“This entire process was a comprehensive and stringent selection process as we don’t want to have this programme go to waste, so I urge you to utilise it and grow and expand your respective livestock holdings,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Alfred Kenneth Williams of Matakibuli Estate in Nasarawaqa who is a small livestock farmer has urged fellow Fijians to utilise the opportunities provided by Government and to bring their land under agriculture.

“I’m a small scale beef farmer, I used to do sheep farming but after the cyclone I lost a lot of livestock and I am still trying to recover and I also have a few goats and as a farmer, I was really excited to receive news of being a successful awardee because this is the first assistance I’ve received from the government and the Ministry and its really very encouraging because as a livestock farmer, this is one of the major expenses we livestock farmers have to foot, fencing kits, so with this help it will really boost us,” said Mr. Williams. 

“I am very supportive too of the Minister’s message to increase production because as we know, we are already losing so much to overseas countries by importing meat and other crops in whatever scale and with this assistance from the government, it will help us to boost our production here and it will help to increase our meat supply,” he said.

-Ends-

• ← Go to all Press Releases