After a tough two years during the country’s COVID outbreak, the Taiwan Technical Mission farm in Sigatoka was once again a hive of activity providing agricultural support for local farmers.
The farm recently welcomed a group of 80 USP students on a field trip to study some of the new variety of horticulture products.
Farm manager Kevin Liao said while operations at the farm slowed down at the height of the pandemic, the challenging period offered another opportunity for new farmers.
“What we saw was that because people were out of work, they were going into farming,” he said.
“So during that time, we were approached by a few new farmers wanting to learn more about farming and how to properly cultivate and harvest certain fruits.
“We had about 20 new farmers during that time and since then they have developed some very good products for the local market.”
He said their technical expertise was the reason students from USP had been visiting the farm for the past five years.
“The main fruit we grow and cultivate at the farm is a variety of guava called the Green Pearl and dragon fruit.
“Green Pearl is a variety that does not grow in Fiji and we had brought it in from Taiwan.
“Since introducing it, we have seen that it grows really well in Fiji and can even be sold locally or exported.”
He said the farm had been seeing huge progress with a second facility being planned in the Central Division.
“We have a new farm being set up in Nausori and it will be operational very soon.”
