DREKETI rice farmer Amit Chand knows the benefits of toiling the soggy rice fields of Dreketi but he isn't planning on giving up the work for any other.
The 55-year-old farmer of Matasawalevu Dreketi, Macuata said his family had been through thick and thin from the yields of his 10-acre rice field.
A team from this newspaper recently caught up with the farmer planting rice seedlings on a rainy Monday while everybody else was having a hot cup of tea in their homes.
Mr Chand said rice was the easiest commodity to cultivate because it required little work.
"However, one has to develop a liking for the wet and soggy environment in which rice thrives.
"My 10-acre farm usually produces 10 tonnes of rice which is usually bought by the Rewa Rice Company for $7.50 a kilogram.
"Of these 10 tonnes, six are sold while four are kept for subsistence use — we even share with relatives," said Mr Chand. He said his expenses included labourers' pay, which was $10 a day for farmers who ploughed the land and helped plant the seedlings.