Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture has launched its rice expansion initiative and reintroduced rice cultivation for sugarcane growers around the country.
Announcing the initiative at the Sugar Research Institute in Drasa, Lautoka, Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy said the program would ensure Fiji gradually achieved self–sufficiency in rice production.
He said under this initiative, each sugarcane farmer was encouraged to plant at least one acre of rice because the ministry would provide them with seeds of improved high-yielding varieties that could be grown under rain fed climatic conditions.
He said the ministry would provide 30kg of rice seeds at no cost to every sugarcane farmer.
“We want each sugarcane farmer to plant rice as a supplementary and complementary crop; it could supplement your food and income security, it has also proven to be a good complementary crop rotation with sugarcane,” Mr Reddy said in a Government statement.
He said about 8000 metric tonnes of rice was produced and consumed locally.
He added they had around 7000 acres of land under rice cultivation and to achieve self-sufficiency, a total of 24,000 acres of land with two crops a year was needed.
In 2019, Fiji imported $42.6m worth of rice into Fiji, equivalent to around 40,000 metric tonnes of rice.
