The Ministry of Agriculture in its continued efforts to address long-standing issues that affect rice farmers throughout the country is continuing its distribution of portable rice mills to identified rice farming clusters.

The Lautoka Rice Farmers Cluster in Johnson Road, Matawalu, in Lautoka, Nabila Rice Farmers Cluster and Tunalia Rice Farmers Cluster in Nadi and the Namau Rice Farmers group in Ba this week each received a portable rice mill to address the issue of a lack of milling facilities available to the farmers and directly resolves transportation costs borne by the farmer during rice milling.

In his remarks to these farming communities while handing over the rice mills, Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy said a major drawback for rice farmers was the lack of milling facilities closer to them and as a direct response to this, he shared the Ministry had secured portable rice mills for any interested rice farming cluster.

“We’re very pleased to see the response from farmers with respect to our promotion on the need for more rice cultivation in Fiji, to all these areas that are moving into rice production for their own consumption, we will come and give you a portable rice mill,” said Minister Reddy.

“The question that these farmers ask is where will we go to mill our rice? And that is why we are providing a portable rice mill so that you no longer have to travel long distances to get your rice milled and ready for consumption.

Hon. Reddy said that it was the Ministry’s aim to provide each settlement or farmers’ cluster that was cultivating rice with their own portable rice mill.

“This is so that you don’t have to pay high transportation costs to get your rice milled and also be subjected to pay commercial rates to get your own rice milled at the large mills,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nabila Rice Farmers Cluster representative Mr Taumanu Kode expressed his group’s gratitude for the continued drive by the Ministry to supply rice farmers with a portable rice mill.

“We are fortunate and proud to receive this rice mill which the Minister and his team have handed over, we are very thankful because now we no longer need to take our dried rice to Nadi town which is about 10 kilometres away to get it milled, we can do it right here,” said Mr Kode.

“Our cluster will work together and will do our best to continue to contribute in terms of moving the rice industry forward by increasing our area of cultivation and our production levels,” added Mr Kode.

For the members of Tunalia Rice Clusters, their president Mr Nur Shah said that a huge relief was felt by the members of his farming group after the rice mill was delivered to their doorstep.

“To mill our rice, we used to pack our bags of rice and carry it on horseback or we used to hire a carrier to go all the way to Togomasi which is very far from here and sometimes when that mill is not working or unavailable, we go all the way up to Nawaicoba which is also very far,” said Mr Shah.

“It was very hard for our farmers here in Tunalia but today we are very happy, thank you to the Ministry for the effort in getting us this rice mill, it is a very very big help for us and it should boost us to grow more too,” he said.

Four portable rice mills were distributed to these predominantly sugarcane growing areas in the Western Division, which have also ventured partially into rice cultivation as well to diversify their income and food security.

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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