WHEN the crowds began arriving at Vatureba Park for the Navosa Youth Festival, Kinisalote Rakai was already at work.
At the entrance to the park, the 43-year-old farmer from Nukuilau Village in Draubuta, Navosa, had set up her makeshift stall with freshly harvested watermelons.
Some were cut into juicy portions for festival-goers looking for something cool in the hot weather, while whole melons were ready for those wanting to take one home.
The location proved to be a good choice.
As people entered the festival, many stopped at Rakai’s stall to buy the affordable watermelon.
By midday, almost 80 of the more than 100 watermelons, she had brought with her husband, had been sold.
“We have been farming for a while, and watermelon has been one of our longest crops as it grows well in the province,” Rakai said.
For Rakai, selling the family’s produce is another part of the work she shares with her husband.
Their farm has been producing watermelons since 1999.
Over 27 years, they have also grown cabbages, tomatoes, capsicum, long beans, bora beans, French beans, corn, peanuts, watermelons and sweet potatoes.
The couple leases land and uses a tractor to help with the work.
They once had a carrier but sold it to buy the tractor because it would help them more in running the farm.
Getting their produce to the market, however, comes at a cost.
Transporting the watermelons from Nukuilau Village to Vatureba Park costs them $180.
The Rakai couple has seven children. After the death of their eldest child, they now care for their six children with what they earn from farming.
She said their experience had shown them that the weather in Navosa allowed certain vegetables to grow well, giving the family an opportunity to earn from the land.
For Rakai, farming is a partnership, and she wants other women to see the value of being part of that partnership.
“I would like to encourage women, who are at home, to always assist your husband if he farms,” she said.
“We can earn a lot if we help each other out in toiling the land.”
At the festival, each watermelon sold was a small return on years of shared labour.
