Picture: Handing over of the portable rice mill at Vunivutu Village by Minister for Agriculture Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy.

The four rural rice farming communities of Lagalaga/Maleqeo, Nubu, Daku and Vunivutu in Macuata now no longer need to travel far to mill rice for their own consumption.

This follows the handing over portable rice mills to these four communities by the Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy yesterday.

He elaborated the purpose of handing over these portable rice mills to these communities, which was solely meant to mill rice for their own consumption and not for the milling of rice paddy in large volumes for commercial purposes. 

"Today, we're here to provide to you a rice mill so that when you grow and harvest your crop and you want to use it for your home consumption, you don't have to look for a mill or travel long distances to mill your own rice," said Minister Reddy.

"This rice mill is supposed to incentivise you to grow more rice but that rice you'll grow, you grow for the market and it'll be sold to Fiji Rice Limited. We don't want you to use the rice mill to mill the rice and sell it in the market, that's not the purpose of the rice mill," he added.

Minister Reddy elaborated that the portable rice mill being distributed by the Ministry was not intended for large scale milling of rice paddy in large quantities as this could damage the machine, which was meant only for small quantities of rice for home consumption.  

"You can have your own rules and regulations with respect to how you use the rice mill but at the end of the day, you need to look after the upkeep and management of the machine as a cooperative.

"This machine is for everyone, equally, regardless of your position within the cooperative and must be shared amongst everyone," he said.

Lagalaga/Maleqeo Farmers Cooperative President, Ravindra Nath has thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for the continued support towards their cluster.

"This mill will complete the assistance given by the Ministry to our cluster here in Lagalaga as we had previously received a harvester as well from the Ministry, we're blessed and happy to be considered by the Agriculture Ministry," said Mr. Nath.

As for Ms. Akisi Vinaka of Wainidrua Village in Nadogo in Macuata, she has called on her fellow rice farmers to continue to grow more rice and to be mindful of their responsibilities as farmers. 

"We are very thankful to receive this assistance in the form of this portable rice mill, I have 4 acres of land already under rice cultivation and this assistance is a big help for the farmers in this area," she said. 

"We should continue to plant more rice and to do our part instead of complaining on and on about the areas the Ministry has lacked in delivering, we must do our job and conduct ourselves as responsible farmers who produce first and if it so happens, be ready for Government to provide the needed boost to us," she said.

Meanwhile echoing similar sentiments was President of Nubu Rice Farmers Cluster Mr. Ami Chandra, who looks after 26 farmers in his area stating; "We, the farmers here in Nubu are delighted to be receiving this assistance and we hope to increase our production and planting here due to the continued support shown by the Government of the day, we will be able to grow as a farming cluster, thank you very much."

The Minister will be officially handing over portable rice mills to rice farming communities throughout Vanua Levu this week as part of the "We Rice Up" Programme.

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