Road access to boost production
“FOR the first time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Waterways deployed machinery to the Lau islands for the construction of new farm access roads and land preparation, with careful consideration on its sustainability towards the environment.”
Minster for Agriculture and Waterways, Vatimi Rayalu, while speaking in Parliament recently, highlighted that the Ministry constructs farm roads to access farm land to boost production in the agriculture sector.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Waterways has upgraded 141 existing farm roads with a total length of 242.7 km and constructed four new roads with a total length of 5.7 kilometres in this financial year,” he said.
“The program for farm access roads supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s Strategic Development Plan of diversifying production and improving market opportunities for farmers.”
In the Lau Group, 248 agricultural households have benefited from the completion of four new farm access roads and the upgrading of four existing farm access roads, which have a total length of 24.7kms.
Minister Rayalu added the roads now provide accessibility to prime farmland allowing farmers to expand the size of their farms and facilitate the easy sending of produce after harvesting to the markets.
“The total number of agriculture households that benefited from this program around Fiji is 3080 as presented in Annex 1.”
“Infrastructure development plays a critical role in advancing the Ministry’s collective objectives to grow the agriculture sector. “
Minister Rayalu added the program was aligned to the Ministry’s mission of creating an enabling environment that accelerates economic opportunities for food and nutrition security for all Fijians.
He also said that the Ministry will continue to assist farmers to construct new and upgrade existing farm roads.
“The Ministry is streamlining internal processes and procedures to ensure financial and procurement requirements are met in a timely manner,” Minister Rayalu said.