Third-generation dairy farmer Nilesh Lakhan knows firsthand the struggle of keeping an agricultural business viable when production costs heavily outpace revenue.
As a board member of the Fiji Cooperative Dairy Company Limited (FCDCL) and the owner of Lakhans Farm Pte Ltd in Waidalice, Tailevu, Mr Lakhan was part of the review team that shaped the new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Fiji Development Bank (FDB).
He said that under the previous agreement, farmers faced major difficulties accessing credit, and the redesigned finance facility intentionally fixed those barriers to give dairy operators a seamless pathway to expansion.
“Farmers were facing a lot of difficulties accessing loans in the previous MoU. So this MOU is designed for farmers to access the loan in a much more easier way,” Mr Lakhan told this newspaper in an interview yesterday.
He said the new agreement also covered smallholder entities.
He said in the Central Division alone, out of 160 active dairy farmers, only 20 were currently FDB clients.
To capture the remaining 140, he said the MoU introduced specialised startup packages tailored for small farmers who lacked land property, titles or eligibility.
“There is a start-up package in this MoU, directed to them so they can take that loan and build up from the subsistence level into semi-commercial level.”
To assist farmers and eliminate banking red tape, FCDCL and the Ministry of Agriculture will directly supply FDB with complete historical data for each applicant—including milk production records, stock numbers, and verified bovine tuberculosis clearance rates, which have successfully dropped from 44 per cent to below 1 per cent at present.
With national consumption sitting at 40 million litres annually and domestic raw milk production at just six million litres, Mr Lakhan believes targeted lending is the missing link needed to fill the massive market deficit and empower youths in joining the industry.
“Farming is a hard work. But if we have these kinds of provisions, then definitely people will be excited to come.”
Waidalice farmer Nilesh Lakhan. Picture: JONA KONATACI
