In an effort to improve and strengthen information dissemination to rural areas, the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with other government departments, conducted a two-day Consultation forum this week at Nasele village, Naitasiri.
The Ministry’s Extension Division facilitated the meeting for 115 participants from the four villages in the province of Naitasiri.
Senior Agriculture Officer [Naitasiri] Adriano Tabualevu said the main objective of the event was to bring the Naitavuni community together that is the 4 villages which include Nasiritu, Nasevou, Nasele and Delailasekau.
“The participants were enlightened by the services offered by other various ministries on measures they could delve into enhance their livelihood,” he said.
Mr Tabualevu added most participants were from registered ginger groups and normally join the Viria cluster group but operate individually from last year.
“We want to increase our production of ginger in order to meet the demand of the market and the Agriculture Ministry is committed to support farmers with capacity building and some provision of planting materials to assist in their farming,” he said.
He said the Ministry is also advising farmers to plant a lot of dalo to meet demands in the export market.
“Taveuni normally supply 80% of dalo for export but due to infertile land and the rejection rate of dalo, supply in the locality has declined.
“To minimize those problems, the Ministry is focusing on some areas like the Solo-ira community in Serea, Lutu, Naitavuni community and the province of Bua for dalo supply.”
For Naitasiri farmers, he added yaqona, dalo, banana, ginger and cassava are their main commodities.
PRESS RELEASE