EMI KOROITANOA
Many years ago, Jaywant Pratap was stricken with an epiphany that he would be living beneath his privileges if he continued to carry out subsistence farming, casually growing food crops in his backyard to feed himself and his family.
Mr Pratap knew ‘change’ was undeniably crucial at this point, so he sought out to turn his subsistence farming into a commercial one, investing in sheer hard work, dedication and commitment to what later transpired into Janson’s Poultry Limited.
Today, the 62-year old who is married with five kids, stands as the proud owner of Janson’s Poultry Limited in Koroqaqa, a farm that has been independently thriving without any assistance for the past 30 years.
“Farmers should also work hard for themselves rather than depending on handouts from the Government,” he said.
“The customers are demanding fresh products and I do delivery of eggs on a daily basis to meet their demands.
There are no complaints from my customers.”
Currently, Mr Pratap has a five layer shed producing almost 600 tray of eggs per day.
To meet the increasing cost of production, the poultry has invested in its own feed mills, with a capacity to produce feeds for his own farm. It also sources day old chicks directly from New Zealand.
Mr Pratap also carries out dalo farming on his seven acre leased land in Koroqaqa where he has planted six acres of dalo supplying it to the Fiji Agro Marketing.
Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy, during a consultation with farmers in Naitasiri, urged the farmers to take good care of planting materials they have been given to avoid being too dependent on the Government assistance.
Minister Reddy said in past years, the ministry had given planting materials to farmers only to find the same recipients the following year asking for the same assistance again.
He has stressed to farmers that this sort of culture needed to stop as government is trying to promote an independent agriculture sector.