Minister for Agriculture, Dr Mahendra Reddy has announced 5 new initiatives to successfully influence production via demand-side intervention.
These are namely;
1)Optimising JUNCAO Grass in partnership with the Government of China’s Juncao Technology Program.
2)Backyard Gardening (BG) packages for households that includes a guide, up to 25 potting bags, up to 5 bags of garden soil and seeds or seedlings with of 4 crops and 2 fruit trees.
3)Establishing 40 fruit tree orchids annually for the next three years, at selected farms measuring 1-3 acres.
4)Upscaling pulse seed production to engage interested farmers on commercial sales at their farms.
5)Young Farmers Business Incubation Scheme to engage 100 youth farmers aged 20-30 years who have land readily available for quality produce to local and export markets.
Dr Reddy said these programs would all be implemented concurrently with existing programs this financial year [2018/2019] and indicative of the Fijian Government’s continued commitment towards the agriculture sector.
