This season Fiji potato farmers will plant locally grown seed for the first time

In Fiji, the Ministry of Agriculture is working closely with farmers around the country who are interested in potato farming.

Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Jitendra Singh says this year’s locally produced potato yield is expected to be around 410 tonnes where locally planted seed production is expected to be around 50 tonnes and imported planted seed yield is expected to be around 360 tonnes.

The potato planting season for this year began with a huge interest from farmers.

The planting season of this seasonal crop is from May to August every year.

This year will be the first year farmers will be planting the locally obtained seeds.

Over the past years under the Potato Research and Development Programme, the Ministry of Agriculture has been working on producing and storing seeds from the locally grown potato crop in order to reduce the importation of potato seeds.

Potato Research and Development Programme has been allocated a sum of $300,000 in the 2017‑2018 financial year.