It was all praises by the farmers as the Agriculture team toured some of the farmers assisted under the Farming Assistance Scheme around the Northern Division.
The Farming Assistance Scheme (FAS) is an ongoing Government initiative to help ALTA farmers whose lease have expired or incoming farmers.
The scheme is administered by the Land Resource Planning and Development Division of the Department of Agriculture.
The Farming Assistance Scheme was introduced to financially assist the incoming landowner farmers who wish to take new farms from ex-ALTA tenants.
In addition to that outgoing ex-ALTA tenants, who may wish to be resettled, purchase new farms or gain residential leases are also assisted.
Both the incoming new tenants and outgoing tenants are to be treated fairly with the provision of equal grant of $15,000 per farmer, to meet the development cost of the farm in the first year.
The $15,000 is to assist farmers to pay their lease offered from the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) and materials for the establishment of their new farming ventures.
Principal Agricultural Officer (Farm Management), Vatimi Rayalu said that under the Farming Assistance Scheme a total of 404 applications have been approved with a total value of $3,721,948.92.
“All these applications were verified before they were submitted to the FAS National Steering Committee,’’ Mr. Rayalu said.
“The farmers who have been assisted under this scheme should be aware that the Government has done its part and it is their responsibility to make use of the assistance and produce higher yields to uplift the standards of living,” added Rayalu.
“There is a lot of potential on the land which farmers should utilize,” Rayalu said.
Rayalu added that this assistance has enabled most farmers to harvest a double crop of cane each year.
Mrs Diunisi Tabakei from Mataisea, Lekutu Bua is one of the many farmers, who received the assistance and thanked the Government for establishing FAS to assist replacement sugarcane growers.
In her 15 acres of lease land she plants rice and vegetables and also has some land to graze her cattle.
Tabakei sells the rice to Rewa Rice Limited at $750/tonne and uses vegetable for her family consumption with the surplus sold in the village for cash.
With the money earned from the farm she managed to buy a power tiller which is used in the cultivation of her rice field.
Tabakei encourages farmers to work hard and use their idle land since they can earn good money.
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