Every time you serve rice at home or have it at a restaurant in town, there is a high chance it had travelled over 8400 kilometres from Asia to reach your plate.
To satisfy your choice for staple, it most probably sailed by container ship too, from a bustling port in Vietnam, Thailand or China.
The fact is Fiji has been importing rice, and a lot of it, for decades.
Ministry of Agriculture 2020 statistics report show rice worth $46 million was imported in 2019, which placed the commodity at the country’s top three non-meat agriculture-based imports for that year.
And talking about rice, its mention would never be complete and accurate, without connecting it to the green rice fields of Dreketi in Macuata or any other rice planting part of Fiji for that matter.
At Dreketi, famous for being the location of Fiji’s deepest river, Macuata’s sugarcane fields give way to rice paddies, before sprawling hills of pine plantations greet you in Bua.
Dreketi is an area of Fiji that, like Seaqaqa, rose from Fiji’s frantic search for new revenue streams and commercial crops after independence.
In 1970, the British had left and Fiji had to fend for its citizens.
This resulted in Government trying out many agriculture schemes in a quest to earn revenue.
The geography, weather, soil quality and the sustenance provided by the mighty Dreketi River made the area perfect for the cereal grain.
However, despite its great promise and outstanding performance, Fiji’s rice industry had weakened over many years.
While rice area and production declined, rice yield growth remained somewhat stagnant.
Consequently, Fiji, which once attained around 70 per cent of self-sufficiency in rice in the 1980s has had to increase its rice import continually over the years to satisfy its growing population’s dependency on the staple.
This is a dilemma indeed, considering the fact that according to experts, the agro-climatic conditions in Fiji had always been favourable for rice cultivation.
In fact, rice had been grown in Fiji for more than 100 years.
According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation, rice was cultivated even before the arrival of Indian labourers during the indentured system between 1879 and 1916.
Later on, however, the Indian labourers on sugarcane plantations took up rice cultivation for family subsistence.
The FAO literature stated that Fiji’s colonial authorities in the 1930s and the 1940s started Fiji’s first official rice development programmes in response to the plummeting sugar prices and high rice imports.
And since 1960, rice expanded into non-sugar land, and specialised rice growing areas became established in the northern, central and western divisions.
The FAO said between the 1960s to the 1980s, rice area and production went up and down in the range of 7500-13,000 hectares and 14000-23000 tonnes respectively.
After Independence in 1970, there was another drive for self-sufficienc1y.
This led to setting up of large-scale irrigation schemes for rice.
A total of 11 irrigation schemes were established in the central and northern divisions.
The first was established in Lakena, outside the township of Nausori and later in Dreketi in Macuata and then to Navua in Serua.
Then in the 1980s, Government introduced new strategies to encourage rice farming which led to a steep increase in production in the mid-1980s when Fiji attainted over 70 per cent self-sufficiency in rice.
Between the 1980s to 1991, Fiji achieved a dramatic increase in both area and production.
Production exceeded 30,000 tonnes and the area reached 13,000ha in the years 1988-1989.
But after enjoying a peak in the ’80s, the Government changed policy on rice development by applying de-regulation.
FAO noted that as a result of these policies, among others, the rice area and production started declining and simultaneously rice imports gradually increased.
The irrigation schemes remain today, together with families that depend on them for survival.
While mechanisation has helped eased the burden of work , everyday problems linger in rice farming communities like Dreketi.
Travelling expenses, labour and fertilizer costs are things to consider.
While tractors and harvesters are available in some areas, they do not always turn up when needed.
Now, issues like climate change impacts have posed new challenges.
Somewhere amid these problems, authorities have been trying their level best to encourage rice farming.
The Grace Road farms in Navua show it can be done.
In 2011, Government had directed the Department of Agriculture to improve the quality of domestic commodities
to substitute imports like rice.
Then, Fiji had 3,517 rice growing farmers producing a total of 7600 tons of rice each year, which was not enough
to cater for the country’s domestic demands.
Lately, Fiji has been spending around $40 million annually to buy 44,000 tons of rice from overseas, rice that
could be supplied by Fiji farms.
It is estimated that about 85 per cent of rice consumed in the country is imported, particularly from Vietnam.
“Rice is a staple found on kitchen tables throughout the country. But all too often that rice is grown thousands of
kilometres away,” was how Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, summed up the rice production issue 2020.
“There’s no reason that Fiji and our ideal climate for rice cultivation can’t make that journey from the rice paddy to
our tables much shorter.”
According to the website www.knoema.com which provides world data on agriculture commodities, among
others, in 2020, rice production for Fiji was around 8208 tonnes.
It said though Fiji rice production fluctuated substantially in recent years, it tended to decrease overall from the 1980s to 2020.
Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture launched its ‘We Rice Up’ program in an attempt to increase rice yields and
return Fiji’s rice industry to its glory days.
Resources were deployed to quicken the harvesting process but at a fraction of the cost to farmers.
According to media reports, some farmers had their fields harvested at night.
In Macuata alone, 337.08 hectares were put under rice cultivation.
A total of 674.87 metric tonnes of rice were produced.
Rice production in Fiji has been facing a shortage of labour particularly as farmers grow old and their family
members depart from farming and try out other career fields.
This has led to low productivity.
To help out, Government has supported the promotion of mechanisation in rice production, and incentives in the
forms of machines for hiring at a low price or price subsidy to purchase new machines.
Many Dreketi rice farmers who spoke to The Sunday Times team said fertilisers should be more accessible to
them.
Currently they have to travel to Labasa to buy them, affecting their profit margins.
Others thanked authorities for providing harvesting machines at a cheaper cost but these are not always around when needed.
Machines are either used elsewhere or under repair.
There were also concerns raised on the sustainability of mechanisation in relation to hiking world fuel prices.
Others fear climate change will make wetlands barren in the future and pose a real threat to the rice farming.
Kishor Prasad of Valelawa, a few kilometres outside Dreketi, used to plant rice during his younger years.
He said what used to be a great farming neighbourhood during its heydays was now only a shadow of its former
glory.
Many of his relatives and friends, left after the coup of 2000.
He and his family had to hide in the hilly forest for days before it was safe to return home.
“Our house was ransacked and stoned every night but even after those very terrifying times, I couldn’t leave
Valelawa,” Prasad said.
“I kept telling myself and my family that Valelawa was home and nothing was going to remove us.”
Like many family-run farms, education has played a huge role in reducing the number of farmers, farm area
and overall production over the years.
Newer and more lucrative varieties of cash crops are displacing rice.
At the same time, we are depending more on imports from Asia.
“Children nowadays don’t want to get their hands dirty. Rice planting is dirty business and there are other jobs
now available that brings in easy money without having to get you wet and soiled,” Mr Prasad said.
The onus is on Government to continue to push for initiatives that will encourage rice planting in the future or
to look for and encourage cheaper staple alternatives.
Until then, Dreketi’s rice farming legacy and industry, which in the past had built wealth and provided families
with opportunities, will continue struggling to stay above water.
