NANISE NEIMILA
Aquaculture farming is becoming one of the niche market in the fisheries sector with growing interest shown by Fijians around the country.
This is one of the reasons why 57-year old Salesh Kumar of Naiwaicoba, Nadi decided to take up tilapia farming after the revelations from other farmers of its monetary value and considering the demand in the market.
Born and raised on sugarcane farming community, Mr Kumar completed high school and decided to continue with the family tradition of sugarcane farming.
“After leaving school, I spent most of my life in the sugarcane fields and I got tired of sugarcane farming so I switched to vegetable farming.”
“The Ministry of Agriculture visited me earlier this year and advised me since there was good water source on my land that I could try doing aquaculture. I filled in the necessary documentation with the Ministry of Fisheries and was given the greenlight to continue with the project.”
“The Fisheries Ministry dug the pond and provided the fish and other assistance. Currently I have just over 3000 fish in my pond. I have been advised by the Ministry that the fish will be ready in four months.”
Mr Kumar is anticipating his first harvest in the next four months and hopes that he will sell the fish at the market maybe sell at the supermarkets or nearby villages. Sharing similar experience of farming, his son 27-year-old Shalvin Sharma left his permanent job as a joiner to assist his father in cultivating commercial crops and also to farm tilapia.
“I left my job as a joiner to work in the farm as my father was alone, I earn much more here and you are your own boss. The harder you work the more money you will earn.
“You should put your mind to farming. I love farming and just recently I graduated from the vocational training at Swami Vevikananda Technical Centre. I plant varieties of vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, bitter gourd (karela), long bean, water melon, coriander and cassava.”
The family normally sells twice a week at the Nadi market, that is, on Friday and Saturday.
“Sometimes it’s very dry and we get water from elsewhere in our vehicle for watering our farms. I would like to advice other young farmers to take quality produce to the market.
“I would like to call on farmers to minimise the use of fertiliser and do organic farming.”
“My father has started his farming in tilapia fish and my job is to feed the fish on a regular basis. I also look out for the herons which come to hunt for fish.”
He adds that even though they just started tilapia farming this year, the aquaculture sector in the western division looks bright.
Mr Sharma also shared that within their farming community there are close to six tilapia farmers that makeup a cluster group.
The group meets every month to share their experiences, lessons learnt and moreover to see the way forward for them in this area of interest.