Youths Trained on Dalo Harvesting

Dalo planting and harvesting is part of subsistence farming in Fiji and any youth brought up in a farm would obviously know the trick of the trade. But for commercial farmers it is important that it is done the right way. Samu believes that if youths are to be lured into farming they need to be introduced into farming at a very early age with hands on experience. Here we see that harvesting stirs alot of interest among these youths as the crop are ready for the market and all are calculating the value one bundle can fetch!

Samu teaching youths of the clan

A group of youths who are mostly cousins from a clan in the village of Navuso took time off from their daily routine to learn from Samu (experienced farmer) on how to harvest Dalo for the local market. Samu has been in the trade as a farmer for over 25years.

The youths are lucky to have an experienced teacher to teach them on this skill. It may seem just like another dalo harvest but the fact is that would be youths are introduced to farming experiences at the perfect age.

Drain Maintenance Challenges Youths

In the Central Eastern part of Viti Levu, rain drops every day and then. For farmers rain assists us tremendously in irrigating crops but to only to an extent, when too much it causes alot of problems. Ploughing flat lands becomes hard and drains are waterlogged.

Within the area of Nausori a group of youths have been challenged with the water-logs in their farm fields causing rot to crops and its becomes breeding places for unwanted insects and pests. A youth member of this group who call the "Veitacini Farmers" named Masi was caught on camera cleaning the  problem drains.

Upon interview Masi mentioned that the issue with drains was just recent and it never used to bother them.
In the past year, government through the department of works used to dredge the Rewa river which runs close to their farm and this has stopped. There are no funds allocated by the government to cater for this vital works which has a correlating effect to farm fields. They have to resort to physical maintenance which is quite time consuming and demands alot of labor and energy.

This task will continue as they struggle with water until the dredging and drain maintenance will resume.

Rip Logs Cut Costs

A group of youths from Naitutu Village in Tailevu have assisted youths in the Districts of Namalata building their homes at a very low cost. The Youths led by their Uncle Save are hopping from villages to settlements, and farms ripping timber to construct farmhouse for these youths.

These youths who are basically subsistence farmers do not have much capital to afford a home loan or even a regular income to buy building materials. Thanks to Save and his saw-milling brigade who have provided a service to their community which is of immense value.

Youths are now able to build their homes way way cheaper than what the hardware offers. Timber is very expensive and it dominates majority of a home building budget. Through these team of youths, they have ripped logs which are readily available in the forests.

Below is a snap-video of them ripping a Mahogany Tree which is an ideal choice for timber in tropical homes.

click to watch:  http://youtu.be/3vqXPjXf1qk

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Women start to do Organics!

Organic farm project

Luke Rawalai
Saturday, February 08, 2014

WOMEN of Korotubu in Macuata have embarked on an organic farming project funded by Global Environment Facility in conjunction with World Wide Fund for Nature.

Korotubu Village Soqosoqo Vakamarama head Emele Naikabe said they were using manure and byproducts from their village piggery to make an organic nursery farm.

Mrs Naikabe said vegetable seedlings and cuttings were often developed at the nursery before they were transplanted to farms in the village.

"This is a good way of promoting good health among our people through the food they eat," she said.

"At the same time we are recycling and reusing the byproducts of our piggery farm instead of polluting the environment.

"We the women's group in Korotubu believe that we can all work together for the conservation of our environment."

(Source: Fiji Times)

Vanuatu Kava a Potential Export Commodity

Kava or Piper methysticum is a crop of the Western Pacific and is widely used as a ceremonial beverage for centuries. It is a crop that demands aging for maturity as some plants take for at least 4 years then its ready for harvest. The potency of the kava depends mainly on soil type, weather and the number of years it has been grown for.

In Vanuatu kava is an integral part of their daily lives as it has been used as a substitute for crops like cocoa and copra which have an unstable price, whereas kava price remains to be consistent. Most farmers in Malekula Island in Vanuatu farm Kava to be sold as green kava for 200 Vatu per kg. In the village of Mae alone on the northern part of Malekula Island a total of 16 farmers have an estimate of 60 tonnes ready for harvest. A few weeks ago I visited the farmers to train them on how to add value to this crop so as to reap a maximum return on this long term crop. 

The kava market  is mainly Santo and Port Vila but the farmers always complain that buyers often cheat them by not paying total sale price thus discouraging them to sell. As it is there is alot of matured kava ready but farmers do not agree with the market price and conditions. Upon enlightening them on the value adding of kava from green to dry, the farmers are eager to take this on and try to export dry kava through a local exporter. Even though there is a kava exporter in Santo the farmers still feel that their produce are sold undervalued. 

Mae Kava farmer Kaloris Mone in total has over 1600 kava stumps of which 800 are 7 years old. In calculation of this 800  kava stump it can average a weight of 30 Kg thus can give a yield of around 24 tonnes earning him 4.8 million vatu. 

Adding value to this commodity is not as hard as one may think as Nivans thought that it was pretty complicated process. It will only take 2 weeks for kava to be 100% dry and ready for sale to exporters. This extra work could earn them over 400% more from a kg compared to selling them green. It was good to see the smiling faces of the farmers when they were told the potential their crop has as an export commodity.