Professor Biman Prasad [File Photo]

Civil servants, agricultural officers, and extension workers have been urged to play a more proactive role in bridging the budget awareness gap in rural and farming communities across Fiji.

Speaking during a post-budget forum in Nadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad told stakeholders that many Fijians continue to miss out on government support simply because they are unaware of what is available to them.

While the national budget contains significant provisions for sectors like agriculture, education, and small business development, the minister stressed that access to these benefits remains uneven.

“What I find at the community level is that sometimes only those who are aware of the allocations of the benefit that they can derive are able to get it.”

The minister shared an example of visiting a farming community months after subsidies were made available, only to find that most of the farmers were unaware of the assistance they could receive.

“So we are saying to our civil servants and our agriculture research and extension officers that they need to socialize the provisions in the budget so that not only the people who know, sometimes those who are better organized, more educated farmers, and bigger business types are able to benefit and get the lion’s share of the benefits provided.”

Echoing the minister’s call, the Tui Nawaka Ratu Joeli Bulu Derenalagi also urged people in Ba Province and beyond to understand the national budget and actively participate in the government’s development initiatives.

“Since the government initiative is in the budget, we should go for it. Especially, as I mentioned, for the agriculture, we can see on the Mulomulo side, on our side, I was telling the Nawaka people, we’ve got lots of land, but we are not making use of it.”

He has also expressed particular satisfaction with the increased allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture, emphasizing the potential for rural communities to tap into government assistance and expand agricultural productivity.

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