One of the little islands of Macuata is Kavewa which I only know through a taralala song. The people are busy gathering seaweed for a lucrative income. Good on them. Way to go. Use initiative and find a marketable product. The story is from the Fiji Times today.
Seaweed harvest to boost income
Salaseini Moceiwai
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
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Kavewa Village headman Emosi Time and Jeke Turaga, obscured, check on one of the seaweed lines on Monday. Picture: SALASEINI MOCEIWAI
THE people of Kavewa in Macuata are looking forward to pocketing cash when harvest from their seaweed farms are sold next month.
On Monday, officials from the Fisheries Department and the media visited the island and found villagers cleaning the long lines of seaweed a few metres away from the shoreline.
Initiated by the department, the project involves about 20 villagers, said village headman Emosi Time.
"So far, we have about 970 seaweed lines and more to come as villagers are showing more interest in this income-generating project," he said.
"This is the second week for this seaweed farming and we are looking forward to a better harvest come the maturity period in four weeks time.
One tonne of dried seaweed costs about $800 and our target is to have as many tonnes as possible."
Mr Time said the harvest would help boost their savings for the upcoming festive season.
"We can say that through this farming, we are slowly collecting our Christmas and New Year's money.
"This is the way forward for us."
Principal fisheries officer northern Joji Vakawaletabua said they facilitated the project for the islanders.
"We taught them how to engage in such farming and provided some equipment to help them start off their farms.
"Now that they have started well, we are also monitoring their farms to ensure that the seaweeds mature on time."
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