Connecting farmers to the market remains a critical and paramount commitment of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Evidently, by linking farmers to the market, large scale farming is fostered, thereby leading to commercial agricultural ventures.

This was highlighted by Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reedy when commissioning the upgraded 1.7 kilometres of Kavanagasau farm access road at Sigatoka’s East Bank.

Dr Reddy also elaborated that the program was an ongoing exercise, with the Ministry targeting all farm roads throughout the country to either be upgraded or constructed.

He says there was a total of 38 farm roads completed with the actual length of 62.1km and benefiting approximately 1,100 farming households that engage mainly with the following commodities, assorted vegetables, Yaqona, root crops, ginger, Vanilla, beef and sheep.

For the 2020-2021 financial year, the Ministry will continue with the farm road upgrade activities with the budget allocation of $800,000. This fund will enable work on 64 farm road projects with an estimated length of 103.1km which will directly benefit 2,180 farming households.