Ninety-five farmers in the Sanma Province have received kava-planting material from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).
According to the department, more than 19,100 branches of kava or kava cuttings mostly of the noble variety were distributed to interested farmers on Santo and Malo island.
The distribution programme began in February 2019 and is carried out through a partnership agreement signed between the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity (MALFFB) through the Department of Agriculture, and Beleru Farm to supply kava cuttings.
The signing agreement is part of MALFFB’s policy directives to continue to strengthen the participation of private sector within agriculture sector through long and short- term contracts.
MALFFB has been promoting public private partnership approach therefore this signing agreement is an important milestone for the ministry and especially the Department of Agriculture, as this year, DARD’s national target for kava is one million kava seedlings to be distributed to farmers for planting, thus, increasing kava production in Vanuatu.
“The kava restocking programme in Sanma has targeted farmers who are interested in planting kava but have difficulties to access kava cuttings,” said Italio Bororoa, DARD officer in Santo, who coordinated the distribution of kava cuttings.
Sanma DARD has been distributing the cuttings of noble variety of kava since February 2019 and will continue until 2020.
Mr Bororoa said, “most farmers who have shown a lot of interest were from East Santo. Interested farmers access these kava cuttings through the Assistant Agriculture Officers (AAOs) in their respective areas.
Photo supplied Caption: Kava cuttings distributed to famers in East Santo