In 1976, The Fiji Times published a story of retiree Sailosi Raisele, who had turned to pursuing farming his 75-acre native leasehold land at Naceva on Beqa.
According to the article, which was printed on October 29 that year, Mr Raisele had retired from his role as an adviser four years prior. With his personal experience and knowledge of agriculture, Mr Raisele turned to farming with a sense of self discipline that had kept him healthy at the age of 66.
He noted that one of Fiji’s problems was overindulgence in yaqona, saying it was a pity to see young men drinking yaqona until the early hours of the morning. The result of the hangover, he said, normally left the men practically maimed and agriculturally unproductive the day after.
Mr Raisele, a former chairman of the Kadavu Provincial Council, planted 71 acres of coconuts, 2500 yaqona plants, 20,000 tomato plants, and a few chains of chillies, cassava and dalo.
He said yaqona grew well on his land but one of the drawbacks to large-scale farming of the crop was the rarity of planting materials on Beqa. An agricultural officer and senior field assistant on Kadavu at the time had supplied him with planting materials.
According to the article, tomatoes were Mr Raisele’s major money-earner. In the previous month, he had made three trips to Suva and sold more than $1500 worth of tomatoes.
On his first trip, he sold 35.40lb bins at $8 each and received $280. On his second trip, he sold 46 bins and received $360. On his third, Mr Raisele took three big punts with a cargo of 225 40lb bins of tomatoes.
He was disappointed he had sold his tomatoes at $4 a bin, which was 50 cents below the expected price and received only $900.
Mr Raisele had expected to take his tomatoes to Suva once a week for the following three months, but since he had experienced problems, he changed his mind.
He said to sell three punt loads of tomatoes to middlemen was a battle of wits; he said the middlemen knew he had an extraordinarily large quantity of perishable goods that must be disposed of quickly. He was at their mercy and had no other alternative but to sell at the demanded price.
Mr Raisele had thought of taking a punt load at a time and had hoped to get a better price.
He employed casual labourers at $2 a day for harvesting and packaging produce and had hired a punt for $60 to transport his produce to Suva.
He said the cost and production from the outer islands were high.
