With some areas in Fiji receiving none to little rainfall over a ten week period, a meteorological drought has being identified in some parts of the Western and Northern divisions.

Director Meteorological Services, Ravind Kumar says the effects on agriculture is expected to only worsen with the average to less than average rainfall predicted for September and October.

“The Agriculture production with the continuance duration of the dry spell, the production or the yield will slowly low and then we need to see how best we can conserve some of those that can be used later, so in terms of conserving water and some of those foods that can be used for a longer period of time or kept for a longer period of time would be an advice that the public should be taking on.”

Kumar says the onus is on those Fijians living in the worst affected areas to conserve water and use the basic necessity wisely where possible.

Another area of concern the Director notes is the threat of bush fires given the dry conditions.

Kumar says Fijians need to ensure that open fires and slash and burn fires for crops are discontinued given the dry land which has had to cope in some instances with 75 consecutive days of no rainfall.