Free Internet Access for Earth

One of the most challengers Farmers have is connectivity as their locality are remote and communication is a barrier and an obstacle to their daily activities.

Farmers try to keep up with technological advancements and communicate effectively with access to timely

information which has a co-relating  impact on productivity. The much needed information like weather, seeds, market prices and potential markets are some issues apart from the many which Farmers need to have access to at any point in time.

Mostly Farmers are remotely located and most communication providers do not have the infrastructure to allow for such services to reach farming communities. One of the main reasons why network providers shy away from this localities is because of the immense cost involved in set up and maintaining such services.

But there is a new project which has been developed by Media Development Investment Fund  to provide free access to internet data through wifi, made available effectively to all parts of the world. It is called the "OUTERNET" which could be the solution farmers are waiting for.

This project is said to be made available in 2015.

More information on the project can be viewed through wikipedia

Floods Devastate Fiji Farmers

Climate change is taking it toll on small island nations in the Pacific and the changing weather patterns is causing alot of problems to our nation and particularly the farmers of Fiji.

Dalo Plantation under water (source mininfo)

Last week Fiji faced a tropical depression and we farmers have lost alot through the effects of heavy rain leading to flooding.

In the next few days Agronet will be publish an article on the effects of the flood on the dalo root.

Not only we dalo farmers are affected but also poultry farmers as well.

Please do leave your comments or views on climate change effects on farmers below in the comment box.

Thanks
Andrew Weleilakeba

Coloi Youths Move Inland

Coloi youths are a group of farmers in Sawakasa, Tailevu North and their main crop is Kava. These youths face challenges daily and a significant one is the distance to travel to their farm lands. The distance from the village to their farm is around  70km and it is unrealistic to travel there daily.

the farm shelter which needs to be worked on to provide the comfort

 Team Leader Te Navila has organised their plans for the year and setting targets to have better houses to ensure the youths live in comfort after a hard days work. He made a review on their farms and found that these youths are lured back into the village to attend to village obligations and thus loose focus on their farms. The immediate needs identified were  access to farm to be cleared and maintained, accommodation to be improved, and each youth to have own shelter by the end of the year.

youths meeting to better their farming activities for 2014

In the kava plantation weed controlling 

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.