Yaqona Farmers Eye $Millions

Seventy men from Naivucini Village in Naitasiri Province will soon reap the fruits of their labour at the conclusion of the Rural Millionaire Programme.

Run by the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs commercial unit the programme oversee the planting of yaqona (kava) plants over four years to encourage independence and financial stability for people living in rural village.

Naivucini was chosen to pilot this programme after studies claim that it produced a yaqona (kava) lactone level of 8.5. This is similar to that found in Kadavu.

Village representative Ledua Vereti said they could be millionaires by using the village’s own resources.

“That’s why they said that those who live in villages are sitting on gold mines and we are a step closer to that now,” Mr Vereti said.

“Right now, we have 90,000 kava plants so when we multiply that by the price of $120 per kg of each plant, we would get around $10 million so that would make us millionaires.”

He said the initiative was to help raise the standard of living for villagers without relying too much on government support.

“Yes, there is social welfare, but that’s not enough. We want to be able to have something to fall back on when our bodies get tired from working the land,” Mr Vereti said.

“People who work can access their superannuation funds at 55. This programme will do the same for us.”

He pointed out that because 90,000 was a great number of plants to uproot, harvest would take time to complete.

Once they sell their harvested crop, they will use earnings to invest on developmental projects and buy properties in towns and cities.

Among problems faced along the way are the immature death of some plants because of disease and some villagers had harvested the plant before the four years had ended.

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