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A new direction for organic rice farming was demonstrated by Grace Road at the Mataqali Valelevu land in the Rewa province yesterday.
This follows after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Grace Road Food Company Limited and the members of the Mataqali two months ago.
The two parties agreed on the terms where Grace Road will use the land to farm their crops and the 10 percent of their production profit will go to the Mataqali’s youth scholarship scheme.
Leader of Opposition Ro Teimumu Kepa, who belongs to this mataqali, was present to witness the event.
Ro Teimumu thanked the President of Grace Road Food Company Limited for bringing organic farming to Rewa.
Organic farming
Ro Teimumu said: “It is our duty to ensure that people are not the only ones who are healthy but also the environment which we live in and look for food to sustain us.
“We want to be part of your vision which is to feed Fiji and feed the world not only with rice and ginger but other crops as well.
“This is part of my dream which is to educate young people because I believe with Rewa, we need to get our people educated hence establishing a scholarship.”
Farming Condition
Grace Road Food Company Limited president Daniel Kim said Fiji has the fertile soil and the perfect conditions to support a strong rice farming industry.
“Our goal is to achieve Rice Self Sufficiency by 2020 in Fiji. You have fertile soil and the perfect conditions to support a strong rice farming industry.
“We have adopted the direct rice seeder, which can be used on dry-land and also adopted the organic farming technique using microorganisms, which can replace the traditional chemical farming method.”
Mr Kim highlighted through the demonstration the company is confident that this will open people’s eyes to have wider perspective of agriculture and this will give full confidence in moving onto organic rice farmer.