Picture: Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy with the successful recipients of the small farming equipment and irrigation kit offer letters.

Understanding market signals and growing for the market to boost farming income and profits is imperative for farmers to succeed in commercial agriculture.

This was shared by Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy while meeting with farmers and handing over small farming equipment and irrigation kit offer letters to successful recipients throughout the Western Division this week.

“We want all of you here today to do commercial agriculture, we need you to grow for the market, apart from what you want to grow for your home consumption, and you must grow and target the market.

“There is an enormous market for yaqona, duruka, for cash crops, pulses, rice and turmeric, we’re promoting these crops however, we’re not able to fulfil the demand for all of these produce,” he said.

“We’re not able to fulfil the demand for turmeric in America, they want our turmeric, our turmeric is organic, Australia and New Zealand want our ginger, America wants our duruka, and we aren’t able to fulfil our demand for duruka.

Minister Reddy also highlighted the major demand for Fijian Branded kava in international markets but unfortunately, local supply didn’t meet this demand, and at times, some unscrupulous players opted to supply an adulterated version of kava from Fiji instead.

“All these countries want our kava, we aren’t able to fulfil the demand for our kava, we’re getting Vanuatu kava and mixing it and adding it up with ours and sending it to New Zealand and Australia to fulfil the demand, of course we’re analyzing it to ensure that there are no impurities and to ensure that whoever is consuming the kava there knows what they are consuming. 

With respect to the irrigation kits, Minister Reddy praised the perseverance of farmers who had applied for the assistance as it indicated their drive to grow and produce, year-round regardless of adverse weather patterns.

“Now giving out irrigation sets indicates to us that you want to extend the cropping into the drier seasons which is admirable and remarkable that you want to utilize the land throughout the 12-months and not only during the rainy seasons, but also during drier periods where your land lies idle and I want to thank you for that,” he said.

He also reiterated that Government support towards agriculture mechanization would continue as commercializing and developing the sector required the introduction of technology and machinery.

 -Ends-

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