The intent of the Rise beyond The Reef farming ventures has garnered praise, as it complements the Ministry of Agriculture’s main priority of expanding commercial agriculture.

This was shared by Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy earlier this week in Marinitawa, Ba while launching two farmers’ clusters supported by local non-governmental organization Rise Beyond The Reef.

The Rise Beyond The Reef Marinitawa Farmers’ Cluster and Rise Beyond The Reef Yakete Cluster comprising of 150 women from the village of Yakete in Ba was launched by Minister Reddy who also shared a few words of advice to the advisors and members of the two clusters.

“What you are doing fits in well in well with our number one strategic objective, which is expanding commercial agriculture so we are very pleased to be here today to witness the launch of your cluster,” he said.

“For any venture to be successful, you must keep all the data recorded safely. Each and every data of any project so that in the end of the crop period, you are able to draw up your financial accounts and see if this project makes commercial sense.

“Now I do understand that you have free labour that you are utilizing, despite that, I suggest that you draw up proper financial records and cost the labour so that you know that in the absence of that labour, you can see what would be the profit scenario.

Minister also spoke about the importance of treating their farms and agricultural projects as businesses and not social projects as the risk of the project collapsing was high due to a lack of project guidelines drawn up at the inception of the project.

“However, I am very happy that you have chosen crops like turmeric, ginger, cassava and I propose that you also take up duruka and explore planting squash as there is a high demand for squash in the export pathway.

“The fact of the matter is that you have started and you must address some of the points that I have raised, however, all things considered, the Ministry will assist you with planting materials.

Hon. Reddy has also offered the Rise Beyond the Reef farmers’ cluster a second-hand tractor with a 2-disc plough to help the cluster with land preparations with the cluster informed to make up a third of the cost, at $5,500.00 in order to receive the tractor.

The Ministry of Agriculture will also assist the cluster and group with organic agricultural practices to ensure the turmeric grown by the cluster remained organic.

Hon. Reddy advised the clusters to use organic manure to fertilize their fields instead of chemical fertilizers, stating that the Ministry would also provide Bacterium Culture to boost their composting efforts and upscale their organic manure for their farm use.

“We’re happy to provide this support,” he said.

Rise Beyond The Reef Co-Founder Semi Lotawa acknowledged the advice given by Minister Reddy saying; “Thank you for your words of advice for us as this is a new path for many of us and there will be many ups and downs and we are ready to utilise the land as it is the biggest resource we have and we want to contribute in whatever way we can in flourishing the agriculture sector here in Fiji, from here in our highland community down to the sugarcane belts and to do our part and help to revive the agriculture sector.

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