Fiji is a Melanesian island group located in the South Pacific at 175 degrees east longitude and 18 degrees south latitude. The islands are about 1,770 kilometers (1,100 miles) north of New Zealand.
Sugar is the most important agricultural product in Fiji and generated almost 30 percent of its agricultural GDP in 1998, and 15 percent (through sugar processing) of its manufacturing GDP. Fiji also exports copra (dried coconut meat), ginger, and coconut oil, as well as bananas, rice (a product for which island country is aiming at self-sufficiency), cereals and vegetables, pineapples, and other tropical fruit. Copra, in particular, has benefitted from the removal in 1998 of the ban on its export; since the licensing of a second copra-buying company, prices for producers have increased considerably. The discovery of kava’s (a shrubby pepper) medicinal qualities and its potential as a pharmaceutical ingredient have also fueled the growth of a small but promising export industry. The fishing industry, especially tuna harvesting, also shows significant promise. Fiji controls a 200-nautical mile (370.4-kilometer) economic exclusion zone around its shoreline.
Tutu Rural Training Centre (TRTC)
Location: PO Box 24, Waiyevo, Taveuni, Fiji Islands
Contact Person: Father Michael McVerry
Phone: (679) 888 9945
E-mail: michaelmcverry43@gmail.com
The Tutu Rural Training Centre was established by the Society of Mary on Taveuni in 1969, tracing its origins to a Sydney monastery that ran a Marist Brothers training course for Pacific islanders. The Society of Mary in the Province of Oceania owned 480 hectares of freehold estate at Tutu on the island of Taveuni. The Brothers came from the eight Pacific regions in which the Society was involved. The Brothers were given one year of religious training followed by a year of technical training in agriculture, carpentry, and related subjects. At the same time, non-formal adult education training courses were developed for lay people from the province of Cakaudrove, which became the Tutu Rural Training Centre. The two programs—the Formation Centre for Marist Brothers and TRTC, have, from the outset, run in parallel but as separate entities. The TRTC from the outset has been a three-way partnership between the Society of Mary, the community of the Cakaudrove province, and the Fiji Government. The Society of Mary provided highly productive land and the leadership of exceptional priests and brothers. The Community provided voluntary labor to build the Centre and has given ongoing support. The Fiji Government has provided substantial financial support for the initial establishment of the Centre and ongoing operations. The financial support of the government has been subsequently supplemented by the support of aid donors. Government officers, particularly from the Ministry of Agriculture, have provided complementary teaching services.
The mission statement of the Centre is ‘to provide a place/presence in which the people of Cakaudrove are empowered to become more autonomous and take charge of their lives in a rapidly changing world’ with its prime objective being to train people to return home to farm their own land. Over the years, the TRTC has been flexible and, to some degree, experimental in its approach to rural training. This has enabled the Centre to make changes in its efforts to develop more effective programs to prepare for rural self-employment.
The courses on offer today at the TRTC have evolved significantly from the original courses. The five courses now offered are the Young Farmers, Married Couples, Young Single Women, and Parents and Village Courses. The Tutu ‘experiment’ has been highly successful in equipping young people to be successful farmers on their own land. The experience of Tutu has shown that rural youth can earn good livelihoods from the farming of their own land.
Nature’s Way Cooperative (NWC)
Location: PO Box 9825, Nadi Airport, Fiji Islands
Contact Person: Michael Brown
Phone: (679) 672 4566
E-mail: nwc@connect.com.fj
The Nature’s Way Cooperative (Fiji) Ltd was formed in 1995 for the export industry. Over the last 15 years, NWC has grown from a small business handling just 30 tons of papaya to an agribusiness treating 1,300 tons of fruit (papaya, mango, eggplant, and breadfruit) annually for export.
NWC’s core business is the quarantine treatment of fruit fly host products. NWC is a service-cooperative that treats and packs fruit on behalf of its members and charges a fee per kilogram for this service. It is not involved in exporting, which is handled by individual exporters. The cooperative has over 140 members, made of growers and exporters, who are also shareholders in the company. The vast majority of NWC shareholders are small farmers who without the services provided by NWC would not have access to export markets. Its activities include quarantine treatment for fruit fly host products; research and extension; input supply; and, representation of members to national and regional fora.
Tei Tei Taveuni (TTT)
Location: PO Box 52, Taveuni, Fiji Islands
Contact Person: Peter Kjaer
Phone: (679) 828 3352/ 888 0299
E-mail: teiteitaveuni@connect.com.fj
TTT is located on Fiji’s 3rd largest island of Taveuni. The island produces 60-70% of Fiji’s taro for export. Smallholders producing dalo and kava together with tourism have replaced the old coconut estates as drivers of the economy on the island. The last 15-20 years have seen farmers move from subsistence towards semi-commercial farming and with its adverse effects on the environment, having the highest rate of deforestation in Fiji, unsustainable land use, decline in soil fertility, high use of chemical sprays and conventional fertilizers, water catchment problems.
The farmer organization Tei Tei Taveuni was formed in 2009 in response to these problems that threatened the livelihoods of farmers. TTT is the national implementing agency for Fiji under the MTCP II project. TTT’s core business is finding viable solutions to sustainable farming and soil regeneration; food security and sustainable livelihood; and conservation and environmental awareness. Its activities include soil schools; sustainable farming; and lime production.
South Sea Orchids (SSO)
Location: PO Box 11407, Nadi Airport, Fiji Islands
Contact Person: Don & Aileen Burness
Phone: (679) 672 6464
The driving force behind the development of Fiji’s commercial floriculture industry has been South Sea Orchids Ltd. Don and Aileen Burness, the owners of SSO, revived and managed the “Garden of the Sleeping Giant” orchid farm in the Sabeto Valley, for the actor Raymond Burr (“Perry Mason”) in 1984. The “Garden of the Sleeping Giant” orchid facility was for collector and display orchids, particularly Vandas, Cattleyas, and Dendrobiums. Revenue was generated from tourist visits that continue to this day. This provides the first example of linking floriculture development to tourism in Fiji.
Currently, SSO has 290 out-growers of which 230 are females. SSO envisions Fiji developing a world-class floriculture industry that makes a significant contribution to the livelihood of its people. They initially collected and displayed orchids for tourists but now have extended its dendrobium operation to small out-growers in the surrounding areas. To spread the overheads of the support services required for out-growers, they have also added anthuriums to their program. Its activities have focused on the importation of elite planting material from Holland; introduction of orderly marketing; and contribution to poverty alleviation.
Fiji Crop and Livestock Council (FCLC)
Location: PO Box 3387, Lautoka, Fiji
Contact Person: Jiu Daunivalu, CEO
Phone: (679) 666 2120
E-mail: info@fclc.org.fj
The Fiji Crop and Livestock Council was created to represent the needs of an estimated 60,000 farmers in the non-sugar agricultural sectors in the country. Launched by the Minister of Primary Industries, Joketani Cokanasiqa in 2010, it was established to raise the profile of farmers involved in crops and livestock production; to act as the apex forum for advocacy and key services that are specifically designed to respond to the needs of, and reflect the reality of agriculture with the view to drive growth in the industry.
FCLC has its Secretariat located in Lautoka with a Board of Trustees in place, but the core of the Councils is in its associations. The commodity associations that presently make up the Council are the Pigs, Honey, Dalo, Yagona, Grazing Livestock, Ginger, Cocoa, Agri-Exporters, Rice, Coconut Producers/Millers, Dairy, Organics, Fruits & Vegetables.
The government continues its close working relationship with FCLC and recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the agricultural organization that provided additional funds for association development. But its main source of funding comes from the European Union (EU) through its Improvement to Key Services in the Agriculture sector facilitated by its project partner International Trade Centre (ITC).