There will be cash assistance for full time farmers whose crops were damaged during Tropical Cyclone Cody.

Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum during a press conference on Saturday announced:

• Through a fast-deploying cash for farmers programme Government will provide $250 cash to all cyclone-affected farming households for land preparation, cultivation and procurement of planting materials.
• Some 20,000 households qualify for this and $5million has been allocated.
• To apply for assistance, you must be a full-time farmer, your farm must fall in the cyclone path of Cody, and at least 30 per cent of your crops or 10 per cent of your livestock must have sustained damage.

For all Bilateral Quarantine Arrangement registered farmers, Government will also provide seedling and fertiliser packages valued at $176.

Grow from Home programme:

Government through the Ministry of Agriculture will also be distributing 20,000 Home Gardening seed packages to households in Fiji at a cost of $300,000.

Details on how to apply to receive your household seed pack is on the Fijian Government Facebook page.

Application information will also go out through the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition to the Grow From Home programme, Government will be supplying an additional 20,000 farmers with $25 packages of dry seeds at a cost of $500,000.

TC Cody:

“TC Cody was a wet storm but not an, especially windy one. We saw some limited structural damage to infrastructure, but no serious damage to the schools that we rebuilt to cyclone-resilient standards after TC Winston,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“Because flooding has been tough on our farmers many of their fields were inundated and their crops and livestock washed away.

“Our immediate priority is to help them grow back better to feed families here in Fiji and strengthen our agricultural exports.

“The pandemic and the worsening climate crisis are both serious threats to the global food supply.

“We’ve seen that for ourselves in Fiji as have billions of people around the world. So, we encourage families to take advantage of this Grow From Home programme, start a garden, grow some of your food, and help strengthen our national food and nutrition security from the grassroots up.”

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