Minister for Agriculture, Doctor Mahendra Reddy is urging farmers to invest in bullocks and horses to prepare their farms for the next planting season as farmers are not as self-reliant as they were in the past.
While speaking to farmers in Qeleloa in Nadi, Dr. Reddy says even though mechanisation is the way forward for agricultural development, it has also become evident that a significant number of farmers have developed a culture of dependency.
The Minister says farmers should not become too dependent on government assistance and should view farming as a business model.
Dr. Reddy has also highlighted that farmers must practice sustainable models of farming because the Ministry is trying its best to meet the demands of farmers.
He says they have outsourced land preparation to contractors to meet the huge demand of land clearing requests they are receiving on a daily basis.
The Minister says the government only has a finite amount of resources that could be provided to help rural Fijian communities at any given time, particularly farming centric ones.
Meanwhile, Qeleloa Advisory Councillor, Govindama Ramesh thanked the Ministry for the assistance and development programmes.
