Vanilla Farming Project
‘Vanilla Farming Project – Prospective for Livelihood and Income Generation’
Imagine vanilla growing wild, ‘green gold’ rapped around vegetation in a farmer’s field – well this is becoming an attractive commercial farming activity for rural families in Tailevu, Naitasiri and Ra. Vanilla can be seen as an ideal cash crop for rural communities because it is simple to grow as it can be grown in one’s own back yard with not much labor or expensive equipment required. Vanilla, a perfect ‘small holder’ crop offers a good opportunity for Fiji’s agricultural sector as an alternative cash crop commodity as the first harvest of a new vanilla plant is on the third year, after which, harvests are made every year for the next 10-15 years on the same plant.
Due to the enormous potential that exists for vanilla farming in Fiji, NCSMED joined forces with the British High Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2005 to assist the villagers of Tailevu, Naitasiri and Ra in a vanilla farming project. A total of 75 landowners from Nadakuni village, Naitasiri, Namara village, Tailevu and Vunisea village, Ra were selected to take up small to medium scale vanilla farming for livelihood and income generation and a total of 8,000 vines have been established in 2006. The wiriwiri or support trees were planted first and once they were established, the vanilla plants were then planted.
Appropriate workshops and counseling services are being provided to the villagers with the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture officers in terms of farm preparations, planting and nurturing vanilla vines and business advisory services. In addition, on-going training and regular advisory support are provided to ensure that the farmers are able to maintain development and sustainability in the future. Relevant programmes, such as mulching, looping and pollination workshops have also been conducted in 2006 to support the maintenance of the established vanilla farms.
The NCSMED is working with Ministry of Agriculture Officers on extending the Vanilla Farming Pilot Project to Lomaivuna Village, Naitasiri. A total of 30 landowners who have been selected from Lomaivuna village have completed planting their support trees and preparations are underway for them to complete planting a total of 3,000 vanilla vines by the end of 2006.
The expansion of vanilla farming to Lomaivuna village would bring the total number of landowners assisted by NCSMED to start vanilla farming would be 105 with a total of 11,000 vines being established at the end of 2006.
Fiji’s rural village communities have abundant arable land, a small percentage of which is being used for subsistence farming while others remain underutilised. The under utilised land provides good resource base for small vanilla farms as the crop is easy to cultivate, does not require much skills, vanilla does not require huge subsidies nor import restrictions that cause consumers to pay higher prices, it is not capital intensive, it is a non-perishable commodity and not bulky so it can be transported abroad at economical rates and above all there is a huge market for vanilla both locally and for export especially to Australia, NZ and USA. All in all, vanilla farming is an economic activity that does not disrupt normal traditional lifestyles of a village farmer.
(Please see picture gallery for project pictures)