The Minister for Primary Industries Mr Joketani Cokanasiga said Fiji is very keen to continue strengthening ties with Indonesia to develop our rice industry and boost production.
Mr Cokanasiga made the comment at a meeting with the Republic of Indonesia’s Ambassador to Fiji, His Excellency Mr Aidil Chandra Salim yesterday.
“Fiji has been developing relations with Indonesia since 2004 when the Republic of Indonesia had donated 10 “walk behind” tractors and also provided four farmers and one staff training to assist rice production in Fiji,” Mr Cokanasiga said.
“Fiji is very keen to continue and develop this cooperation between the two countries for the benefit of our farmers and the rice industry.”
Fiji currently imports 80 percent of its rice requirements, which is worth about $40 million annually. The objective of the Department of Agriculture is to reduce imports by $35 million by 2012. To achieve this, Fiji needs to plant 10,000 hectares of rice at a cost of $15 million to produce 43,500 metric tonnes of rice
Mr Salim said there were two aspects of the rice industry that he viewed as critical to developing Fiji's rice industry.
“These include capacity building or training of farmers and officers in the proper rice husbandry and management practices and the need to use machines in rice farming,” Mr Salim said.
“Personally, I feel that one of the key areas that Fiji is lacking in is the appropriate machines to assist in fully developing this sector and we are keen to assist in this sector.”
“We have found that the Kubota machines that we had earlier provided seem to be very acceptable and suitable to Fijian farmers and to the sector.”
Mr Salim said his government and the Fiji Government can work together in identifying companies willing to export such machines in bulk that can be purchased by farmer cooperatives and then hired out to farmers at nominal rates.
“Farmers do not need to invest a lot of money to buy and maintain these tractors, but to hire them for short periods of time only for land preparation at affordable rates.”
“Through our countries cooperative efforts, we can also develop trilateral relations with a third country to provide training in the use of tractors. It will be much cheaper to bring in an expert from a tractor company to train locals then to fly the locals to these countries for training.”
Mr Cokanasiga pointed out that for Fiji to quickly increase its production and reduce imports, farmer and staff training as well as the use of appropriate machines were critical factors.
“Our main rice growing areas now are Dreketi in Macuata and the irrigation areas in Nasarawaqa and Naruwai in Bua.”
Mr Salim will be visiting rice projects in these areas this week and will also hold discussions with the Commissioner Northern and agricultural officers in relations to assisting rice production in the division.