Rice farmers in the Northern Division have been commended for their efforts in raising rice production.

While meeting with rice farmers recently in Vanua Levu and distributing portable rice mills, Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy congratulated them on this major accomplishment.

"I want to thank each and every farmer in Vanua Levu who has done a tremendous amount of work to see a bumper harvest this year.

"So to incentivize the farmers we are providing portable rice mills so that you don’t have to go long distances to mill your rice for your own consumption," said Minister Reddy.

"Every household is consuming rice and we cannot continue to import that volume of rice that we are currently importing. All around the world now, there is a major crisis with regard to food security, we don’t want to have any major crisis here with regard to our food security, therefore our landowners, farmers and farm households and labourers, all of them need to come together to ensure that we have enough food to consume," reiterated Hon. Reddy.

He also informed the farmers that their rice would continue to be bought by Fiji Rice Limited and encouraged them to continue to plant rice for their own consumption to help reduce the rice import bill.

Meanwhile, Nagigi/Korovatu Rice Cluster president Jainend Prasad said their cluster would continue to plant rice as it had ensured their members no longer had to buy their rice from the shops.

"We are thankful to the Government for assisting us with the rice seeds and harvester and for providing the support we need to grow rice, now we have a portable rice mill too to help mill the rice at our home," he said.

"I now have my own bag of rice at home, I planted my family's rice and we have it at home, we don't have to worry about buying 10kilos rice from the supermarket anymore, I have maybe 30 bags at home and that is enough for my family, we will continue to plant rice and I thank the Ministry for assisting us farmers here in Vanua Levu," said Mr. Prasad.

The Ministry of Agriculture handed over a portable rice mill to the Nagigi/Nararo Rice Farmers Cluster, Nagigi/Korovatu Rice Cluster, Namoli Rice Farmers Cluster, Qawa Vunivau Rice Farmers Cluster, Nabekavu Rice Cluster, Vunivutu Nasoka Rice Farmers Scheme, Nakama Rice Cluster, Waidamudamu Rice Farmers Cluster, Nasoni/Waikisi Rice Farmers Cluster and the Vunimoli Rice Cluster respectively.

The portable rice mill is part of the European Union funded Pro-Resilient Fiji project which is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to support the Ministry of Agriculture’s wider aim to ensure food and income security for Fijian farmers. 

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