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Fiji Sun Online, 20th August 2018
A farmer for Narikoso, Ono, Kadavu has encouraged farmers to change their mindset and farming methods in a bid to acclimatise to changing weather conditions. Semesa Matanawa, who has been farming yaqona and dalo since 2001, says because of climate change steps have to be taken to make crops more resilient.
Narikoso Village is being relocated because rising sea levels are eroding its shoreline. “In my farm I have used 1000 potplants. 100 potplants I have to transfer after three months to the ground,” he said.
“However, if we plant directly in the soil, it will take us two to three times more effort to clean the farm. “When I used potplants to transfer my seedlings, I hardly did any cleaning on my farm.”
Another reason for using the potplant method, Mr Matanawa said, was that seedlings were given enough nourishment to survive then when they were planted directly in the soil.
“I never put in manure after that. I encourage the farmers in Ono to use this method of planting,” he said.
