CLOSE to 20 yaqona, noni, and dalo farmers were recently trained on the value chain process by the Fiji Crop and Livestock Council (FCLC).
The training for the participants who were men, youths and women from Bulu community of Namena in Tailevu was to better understand the monetary value attached to their crop.
FCLC Chief Executive Officer, Jiu Daunivalu said “Following the Tailevu Provincial Council meeting in Ucunivanua Village, Verata, in November, we received a number of requests for value chain training from communities whose members belong to FCLC commodity associations, and Bulu farming community of Namena was one of them.”
“We were also requested to assess farmers’ current status by undertaking a survey to test the entrepreneurial skills of individual farmers, and what they can do to progress towards entrepreneurship while capitalising on available resources, especially land,” Mrs Daunivalu said.
The farmers were also trained on how to assess their resource endowments and identify areas of priorities for improvement.
“The value chain process is a model of Public Private Producer Partnership (4Ps) which capitalises on the value added to a product through the links between commodity producers, the processors, and the markets,” Mrs Daunivalu said.
She said the 4Ps is critical to ensure an effective and productive engagement secured and maintained between all parties.
“We have been driving this with our value chain trainings and contract farming advocacy, which are classic models of the 4Ps. There are benefits and risks of going into a partnership, and our job at FCLC is to help create these partnerships for a ‘win-win’ arrangement that is to be beneficial for all parties involved, especially facilitating the intermediary role for the farmers, and gaining the confidence and trust of all parties,” Mrs Daunivalu said.
The value chain training with the farming community in Bulu in Namena, Tailevu, was the eighth such training carried out by FCLC in 2019.
