University lecturer thrives as sugarcane farmer

A widowed mother of five and a university lecturer, Miliana Fong, also enjoys being a sugarcane farmer.

While it’s a seven-day job that offers no sick leave or overtime pay, she says farming motivates her to stand on her own feet and not depend on others.

Wearing many hats is challenging for the 43-year-old mathematics lecturer at the Fiji National University in Labasa, but she credits Jesus Christ as her source of strength.

“When COVID-19 struck in 2020, while staying at our home in Tabia, Labasa, my husband decided to invest in a sugarcane farming business,” Ms Fong said.

“We used our savings to buy a 13-acre plot where we planted about eight acres of sugarcane.”

Originally from Dreketi, Macuata, Ms Fong said it was difficult to find labourers, so they eventually bought a tractor for land preparation.

After her husband died, two years ago, she faced many challenges, but with her family’s support, she continued farming as it was their retirement plan.

“I have all girls, and the youngest is two years old. I want them to see what their father and I started,” she said, adding that her children help out on the farm during weekends.

After graduating from FNU in 2001, she began teaching as a secondary school teacher until 2008.

She later upgraded her qualifications at the University of the South Pacific and became a lecturer in 2016.

This year, she supplied 179 tonness of sugarcane to the Labasa Mill.

She was the only female recipient of a farm mechanisation subsidy grant of $4200 for a fertilizer applicator from the Sugarcane Growers Fund in Labasa last Friday.

Ms Fong encourages mothers to never give up, even when things don’t go according to their timeline or desires.

“I struggled a lot because my husband and I didn’t know how to farm sugarcane. We kept learning from others, and today I am a happy farmer.”

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