Riya Bhagwan 
Women are the backbone of Fiji’s agricultural industry.
This is according to Dr. Vinesh Kumar, Chief Executive of the Sugar Research Institute of Fiji, who stressed on the pivotal role women play in supporting men within the industry while also independently contributing through their own farming practices.
He says women are an integral part of the agricultural sector, contributing through planting, overseeing labour, and providing crucial support to their male counterparts in the sector.
Dr. Kumar also revealed that women are predominantly engaged in subsistence and semi-commercial farming.
“I had been in the agriculture sector, I had been the permanent secretary, and we have seen, the drivers, in terms of especially the rural economy and we look at agriculture, it has been mainly the women farmers at subsistence level as well as semi-commercial level. They had been the drivers of the agricultural economy.”
Dr. Kumar stressed that women not only make significant contributions to the broader farming sector, but are also closely involved in the specialized sugar industry.
“A lot of times we have seen that a number of these male farmers would be out in the sort of formal sector or informal sector working and the lady farmers would be supervising the labourers or they would be actually doing the planting or looking after the sugarcane field.”
Dr. Kumar acknowledged the indispensable contributions of women in agriculture and stressed the need for greater encouragement and support for their involvement.
