Itaukei (native) farmers need a stable support system to be able to develop strategies to work towards developing their land.
SODELPA opposition member Hon Viliame Gavoka was responding to a question posed by Ashish Nand of Narere, who called for landowners being more engaged in developing their land for cash cropping.
GAVOKA: “We need to develop a support system to help our farmers, the itaukei need a lot of hand-holding. In the highlands of Nadroga, we are setting up a collection centre in Keiyasi. This is the work of the provincial office. We built the collection centre to collect all the crops from the tikina’s (districts) up in the highlands.”
“We need machinery; we need nurseries to be set up, and we need people from the ministry to monitor the performance of the farmers.”
Hon Gavoka said the provincial office had also been liaising with farmers on the ground regarding which markets to target, specifically for commercial farmers.
This article was first published by www.newswire.com.fj on August 4, 2016.