There is a call for farmers to partner with the Tavioka Growers Association if they want to use their land to the fullest.
This was the sentiments shared by the president of the association Josaia Rayawa after the Tavioka Growers third symposium held in Suva on Saturday.
“If you have land that you want to partner up with us to be able to effectively utilise, we are interested in it,” he said.
“We now recognise there are a lot of efforts in our parts to work with selective groups and educate them on what could be consolidated with the partnership with the association.”
According to Mr Rayawa there was a hunger for information among those who had accessed the symposium online and those who had been here on Saturday as it was evident of the fragmentation of the way farmers worked.
“They all work in silos even training and things that are done for them are also done in silos but the desire for a consolidated group support has been clearly the focus,” he said.
“So that is certainly made reference to the fact that the association is so critical to be the voice and to be able to draw from the need of someone met by the experience of someone else and then marry that or to identify the experience of someone else and divert it to the need for understanding with another group.”
This was what the association, according to the president could play very well with consolidating through proper support.
“When we consolidate the focus and desire of the collective mass everything else would just take its course there.
“That’s priority for us is consolidation of the masses identification of the needs, meeting the queries promptly and where we can’t meet it we divert it to the necessary area quicker than an average person walking around trying to find help for themselves.”
There was also a need for the association to consolidate all the queries to one specific channel.
“And that is the consolidation of this information through our working support with traceable solutions so farmers get clear and accurate information about farming needs techniques, whatever queries that farmers would have to be delivered through a traceable app.
“There was also a need to consolidate peoples understanding of how they were managing their finances as a result of the business that has arisen out of this partnership.
“This is where the concept of Soli app, so that financial app is to be able to assist the farmers to manage their business better and all app related.
“The third component to that is for us in the next couple of months to identify roadshow programs, going to the key regional areas first.”
He said they could not cover Fiji in its entirety yet but they would go to a specific region for them to be able to convey this message.
