The government’s obligation and determination on Drainage and Irrigation Projects has resulted a growth the agriculture sector.
This was relayed by the Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy while visiting some projects undertaken by his ministry earlier this week.
Hon. Dr. Reddy reiterated continuous investments by the government through the Ministry of Waterways and Environment on the Drainage and Irrigation support program resulted in the massive increase of agricultural produce at the farm level.
“Over the last two years we have spent close to half-million dollars for drainage program and we are continuing with that as these projects allow farmers to use land that was not utilized previously due to water-logging,” he said
“We have seen a major increase in agricultural production particularly with crops like Dalo, cassava, ginger, rice and also on livestock production,” Minister Reddy says.
Highlighting the potential contribution the farmers can have on the agriculture sector, Hon. Dr. Reddy emphasized that waterways service subsidizes fundamentally to commercial agriculture contributing dramatically towards Fiji’s economy.
“We are very excited about making the agriculture the backbone of Fiji’s economy over the coming years as this is the only sector which is stable and is in our control”
Meanwhile, under the Maintenance of Irrigation Scheme, the Ministry of Waterways and Environment has assisted the Tokotoko Land Purchase Co-operative Limited group with the drainage improvement works which enabled the co-operative to utilize water land which used to be waterlogged previously.
The group secretary Mr. Ramzan Mohammad said drainage work enabled to solve flooding concerns for the community and largely for the co-operative as more room for farming is enabled.
“The land here before was not used as there were issues of flooding and after the De-silting work done by the Ministry of Waterways and Environment we have started to do a livestock farming here in this area,” Mr. Mohammed said.