The agricultural contractual agreement signed recently between farmers in Sabeto and the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) has been labelled a saving grace for villagers as revenue earned would allow villagers to foot bills for their family, church and vanua obligations.
This was noted by the traditional spokesman for the Tui Sabeto, Josefa Maikorea, after the contract agreement signing in Nadi recently.
“This is a new beginning for us as the signing will allow villagers to go back to their farms, cultivate and plant food, and revenue earned from it will enable them to contribute to their family and church,” Mr Maikorea said.
“This COVID-19 allowed people to go back and utilise their land. Most villagers were working and they have not been able to utilise their land well but all this has changed and people have been going back to their land to plant for their family use.
“We are grateful to the Ministry of Agriculture and the AMA for enabling us to be part of this contract and we look forward to planting vacant parcels of land and earn some income for our families and we will be able to contribute as well to the vanua and the church.”
Agriculture Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy urged villagers to take advantage of the strategic advantage in Fiji’s agricultural sector and explore it in a big way.
