Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture has, over the last four weeks, distributed close to 11,000 seed packs to the same number of families.

Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy said the ministry had been inundated with requests for home gardening seed packages.

“We note that there have been households that have called us, our extension office, our staff, myself, our permanent secretary to get these seed packs so that they can utilise the small amount of land around their homes to grow fresh produce, and we thank you for that,” Mr Reddy said.

“We want to encourage other households who were not able to receive the seed packs, probably due to our officers not being able to reach them or they got missed out for some reason – they can call our helpline on 1523 and give us their phone number and our staff will then call them to get details of their location,” he added.

He said the ministry had distributed about 50,000 seed packages over 12 months last year, and this year, in just a month, it had already delivered seed packages to 11,000 families.

“We want to thank all those households and we are very encouraged by the positive response we are getting.”

The distribution of home gardening seed packages is continuing with emphasis being placed on the locked-down areas of the country, particularly in Viti Levu.