Grants Set To Boost Youth Projects In Agriculture

The importance of youth projects in agriculture was highlighted at the handover of the Youth Farm Initiative Grant from the Minister for Youth and Sports to the Sagunu Youth Club on Saturday. The handover cere­mony took place at Nailaga Village in Ba.

Club president, Sivoni Ligaiviu, who received the grant, said the Government had already put in place a number of initiatives and projects that were making consid­erable progress with youth in agri­culture.

“Government wants all Fijians to benefit from growing more food lo­cally since we are blessed with so much fertile land,” he said.

“We thank the Government for such an initiative for us to plant.”

According to Mr Ligaiviu, their club was formed in 2017, but was revamped during the pandemic.

“We have more than 30 members, whereby there are 22 males in the club and we are working on seven acres of land where we plant cassa­va, plantain and banana,” he said.

Handover

At the grant handover, Police of­ficer, Corporal Lavenia Bechu, urged the youths to take hold of the assistance with two hands so that they don’t get involved in criminal activities.

Minister for Youth and Sports Parveen Bala thanked the land­owners for giving their consent for their land to be used by members of the youth in the club.

“Some examples (of the youth pro­jects) include the teaching of basic agriculture at our ministry-run Youth Training Centres around the country and the continuous up-skilling of our rural youth in best agricultural practices due to the fact that most youth projects re­volve around agriculture to sustain their youth groups through income generating projects,” Mr Bala said.

Other youth groups - Ba AOG Youth Club and Varoka Youth Club – also received agriculture grants as well.