The Ministry of Agriculture through its one-third two-third programme recently handed over three brand new rice harvesters to rice farming cooperatives in Vanua Levu.

The three rice farmers’ cooperatives were Matasawalevu Land Purchase Cooperative, Naibulu Nacula Stage 1 Cooperative and Muanidevo Stage 3 Rice Farmers Cooperative in Dreketi, Macuata.

While handing over the rice harvesters to the rice farming groups, Minister for Agriculture Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy said that by sharing a common vision and through continued partnership, together, all stakeholders in the sector had made agriculture growth in the country possible.

“Agriculture growth and development in this country has been possible due to the sharing of a common vision and partnership and in this journey, we’ve done remarkably well in terms of getting agriculture to a new level and it couldn’t have been possible if all of us didn’t share the same vision.

“The vision is if we collectively work towards pushing and improving agriculture growth and development through investment, through improvements in productivity, through bringing in efficiency into the production system, not only will the nation benefit but all those who are involved will also benefit,” he said.

“I’ve always said that the agriculture growth process involves a lot of people and therefore the benefits of the surplus that is created are shared amongst all those that participate in it and that’s the beauty about the agriculture sector as compared to other sectors,” Hon. Reddy added.

He also shared that Government was promoting more investment within the sector to boost agricultural growth and development and reduce Fiji’s reliance on the importation of agricultural commodities.

“I want to congratulate the cooperative for taking this step and for coming forward to apply to us for the one-third, two-thirds programme that we had. This year, we had three harvesters up to bid on a one-third contribution by the cooperative and the two-thirds to be paid by Government and I am pleased to say that you now have got a state-of-the-art, brand new rice harvester,” said Minister Reddy. 

Each cooperative paid their one-third contribution of approximately $20,000 to $21,000 while the Ministry of Agriculture paid the remaining balance of the total cost of each of the three mechanical rice harvesters.

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