The Ministry of Agriculture says agriculture teams in non-containment areas from the Western and Northern divisions have started assisting rice farmers to harvest mature rice.
This particularly for farmers who are not able to harvest rice from their farms because of the lockdown in containment areas.
“It’s business as usual for the agriculture team operating in the non-containment areas,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that this week, the teams harvested and also delivered the harvested rice directly to the house of two rice farmers.
“The team assisted Mr Binesh from Naria by harvesting 16 bags of rice as well as commercial rice farmer Praveen Ramswarup who lives in the Ra containment area with 17 bags.”
Mr Ramswarup acknowledged the efforts of the ministry that would otherwise not have eventuated because he was in the Rakiraki containment area.
“We can’t leave our homes so I give them (Ministry of Agriculture) an A plus. They harvested the rice and brought it back to us, we exchanged the bags at the border,” he said.
