THE 1960s were the heydays for Tilivalevu, as it was here that one of the best managed beef schemes in the country flourished.

Many people went through these farms and became successful entrepreneurs out of Tilivalevu and the same can be said for 43-year-old Vilimone Matavore, who was destined to toil the terrain of Tilivalevu as a livestock farmer, following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Mr Matavore is one of the 25 members who have worked tirelessly to revive the Tilivalevu livestock scheme early in 2010 after the lease was ceased by the iTaukei Land Trust Board. The Ministry of Agriculture assisted them in documenting a master plan following a short-term, medium-term and long-term crop and livestock farm.

Mr Matavore managed to acquire a total of 116 hectares of land and decided to go into commercial livestock farming.

He took a loan of $25,000 from the Fiji Development Bank to initially start off with his dream farm. In the beginning, Mr Matavore had only seven cows and four goats on his farm and from then on he has never looked back.

“Looking at the type of land, I had decided to start with livestock farming as vegetable farming would not have been possible considering the topography of the farm,” he said.

He used the money to put up the fence around his farm, constructed a farmhouse and bought some stock to increase the number of animals on his farm.

At present, he has 45 cattle and 53 goats which he plans to increase further as he targets becoming a leading supplier of animals to the available markets.

Currently, the farmers in Tilivalevu supply goats from their farms to supermarkets namely New World and Consumers Nadi while cattle are taken to the abattoir.

“Farmers here do not face the problem of having to find markets for their farm produce as goats are always in high demand,” he said.

Farmers like Mr Matavore will greatly assist the Ministry of Agriculture in promoting import substitution as Fiji continues to import huge amounts of meat from overseas every year.

Mr Matavore has plans to further increase his farm size by fencing his farm boundary, construct a good stock yard for his livestock and increase the stock number to be able to meet the expected demand.

His advantage is that he already has a developed pasture on his farm, therefore feed for livestock is not a problem.

Locality livestock officer Vilive Seru said, Mr Matavore was one of the hardworking farmers in the village who always had the desire to learn and implement new things on his farm.

“He has been very supportive towards whatever we had been telling him as sometimes it is very difficult to change the mind- set of farmers.”

Mr Matavore wishes to build his family house over the next few years from the income derived from the farm and he will also invest money towards his only child’s education.

Meanwhile, Mr Matavore was one of the outstanding farmers during the Tilivalevu Farmers end-of-the-year meet and awards day program where he was given the award for being the best cattle farmer of the year.

Speaking during the awards, Assistant Minister for Agriculture Viam Pillay said the Ministry of Agriculture would always stand by the side of those farmers who work hard.

“It is always good to appreciate and acknowledge the hardwork of the farmers which will give them more encouragement to do better.”

There were three other awards given to successful farmers which included most progressive farmer of the Year Marika Kurobola, goat farmer of the year Avenai Naveisalaki and overall farmer of the year Ifireimi Mataikadrau

? Umendra Pratap works for the Ministry of Agriculture. Views expressed are his and not of this newspaper.