An okra-focused farming community in Ra says their new portable rice mill will greatly save them time and money after it was handed over to them by Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment, Dr Mahendra Reddy on Thursday.
Barotu South Farmers’ Association President, Mr Jayant Ram, 58, said his members were very happy with their new portable rice mill.
“We will keep it nicely so it will help us,” he said.
“We have about 20 farmers and we had a milling problem. We used to take our rice from Barotu to Rakiraki. When we reached Rakiraki, we were told the mill was not working or it was damaged. We have no choice but to return with our unmilled rice. Now we are very happy that we have a milling machine. It will save us time and cost,” Mr Ram said.
Mr Ram said his members harvested close to ten tonnes of which they kept some aside for home consumption and the rest was sold to Fiji Rice Limited.
Dr Reddy expressed similar comments and said the new rice mill meant the Barotu South Farmers would not have to travel long distances just to mill the paddy they harvested and thanked the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the European Union for supporting the Ministry in this initiative.
Further, he encouraged all farmers who were not already planting rice to do so.
“That will be more than enough to fulfill your household’s demand for rice in one year,” he said.
He said with Fiji’s rice import bill of 40,000 tonnes at a cost of $40m annually, Fiji through its Fijian farmers had the ability to substantially reduce that amount.
“The foreign exchange we are earning is being lost to importation. There is no reason why we cannot grow our own rice,” he said.
The Minister acknowledged the expertise of the Barotu farmers who, while focused on growing okra on a commercial scale, were at the same time planting rice.
