The Fiji Agro Marketing Authority has extended its reach to farming communities in the Lau Group.

Chief Executive, Alvin Sharma says after a recent feasibility study visit to Moala – there was a growing interest from farmers wanting to commercialize their crops and fish stock.

He says as part of its Rural and Maritime Strategy, AMA is serving the inaccessible and uneconomical farming communities.

“It may be a small island but it’s hard to reach these villages. So we’ve done a feasibility study, we have found out what is available. The farmers know what we want, what grade we want so we will now follow up with a buying trip. We will be buying fish and root crops and we want this to be sustainable.”

Sharma says AMA teams visited Kadavu and Taveuni in recent weeks but there are more planned engagements.

To date, more than 600 farmers have been contracted with AMA.

The AMA aims to enhance the livelihood of Fijians by improving commercial agriculture in rural areas.