Six more portable rice mills were recently distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture to Vanua Levu's rice farming communities in an effort to encourage them to increase their rice production and cut down on the nation's current import costs.

The distribution of portable rice mills directly resolves the transportation costs incurred by the farmer while milling rice as well as the issue of the lack of milling facilities available to the farmers.

The Minister for Agriculture, Waterways, and Environment, Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy, stated that the Ministry was aware of the problems and challenges faced by farmers when distributing the portable rice mills to the farmers earlier this week. He also reiterated that the Ministry was working to gradually address these major binding constraints.

Minister Reddy cited the instance of a group of rice farmers from Volivoli, Ra, who travelled 45 kilometres to Tavua Town to mill their grain, noting that such occurrences prompted the Ministry to act and lessen the burden on farmers.

"Farmers had to travel far in order to find a rice miller, and occasionally, when they got there, they discovered that the mill and the house were locked, so they had to go back. This required them to spend a lot of money renting a truck or van, which discouraged them from growing rice.

"As a result of taking note of these issues, the FAO provided assistance, and as a result, Hon. Reddy said, "we are now distributing portable rice mills that you can plug into the single-phase power point and mill your rice," said Hon. Reddy.

Mahen Chand, the president of the Nasealevu Waitaba Rice Cluster, thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for giving farmers the necessary assistance. "Our community is very happy because we previously had to travel quite a distance to mill our rice, but now our community is very happy," said Mr. Chand.

"We are very happy today that we have received that rice mill for our group to do rice milling, and we thank the Ministry of Agriculture for helping us," he added.

The Naleba Rice Cluster Group, Nasese Cluster Group, Qeledamu Cooperative, Natabe Rice Cluster Group, Navita Rice Cluster, and Nasealevu Waitaba Rice Cluster groups were each given a portable rice mill by the Ministry of Agriculture.

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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