Access to Quality Seeds Reaps Results for Farmers

Fiji’s agriculture industry contributes FJD820million (8.6 per cent of GDP) to the country’s economy and provides work for over 83 per cent of the country’s rural population. However, the long-term resilience and competitiveness of the agricultural sector are hindered by limited access to quality agricultural inputs, including seeds. To address this constraint, MDF partnered with the local company KK’s Hardware to support improved access to quality and resilient seed varieties that yield better harvests and higher incomes for farmers.

Following successful seed trials conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Sigatoka Research Station, KK’s Hardware started importing products from the company East-West Seed in late-2020 with MDF support. MDF soon observed that the seed benefitted farmers even in the remote highlands of Nadarivatu. MDF spoke with Apenisa Vunitali, a farmer from Nadali village in Nadarivatu, to find out how using the East-West Seed product impacted his family and income.