TEN farmers in Ra will receive 1.5tonnes of cowpeas seedlings today marking a new era of farming initiatives geared towards increasing Fiji’s exports.
The farmers have partnered with Sabeto-based New Valley which will facilitate the supply and export of cowpeas to target markets.
New Valley chairman Vinesh Rai said this would be the first shipment of cowpeas from Delhi, India.
“We are actually awaiting a total of five tonnes of cowpeas from Delhi and they will be distributed among our farmers in Ra,” Mr Rai said.
“The farmers have about 200 acres of land prepared and ready for planting and as soon as they receive the seedlings they will start with the work.”
He said the company was also in talks with the farmers to establish cooperatives in Ra.
“In each cooperative we will have about 50 farmers.
“The main objective of this, is to create a system where we will be able to better coordinate our supplies and harvests.”
Assistant Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Sakiusa Tubuna told a group of farmers in Sabeto yesterday cowpeas were a lucrative agricultural commodity.
“There are a lot of opportunities here and I am very pleased to see our landowners utilising their land for agricultural products that can be exported,” Mr Tubuna said.
“Our new financial year will begin tomorrow (yesterday) and with that comes the Government-funded grants available to our farmers, our MSMEs to tap into if they want to go into this business.
“We have to thank companies like New Valley and the Indian High Commission for facilitating this exciting new program that will see us not only increase our exports but also bring income to our economy and to our farmers.”
