Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Villagers map out sandalwood plan

Fiji Times - 21 December 2011

by Salaseini Vosamana

A GROUP of villagers at Udu Point have embarked on sandalwood farming to help them purchase a piece of land near their village of Nagasauva.

So far, the villagers have raised more than $17,000 which was collected from a fundraising event at Labasa's Saint Mary's Primary School last week.

Mua-i-Udu Vision chairman Meli Tuqota said part of the funds would be spent on sandalwood seedlings.

"The sale of sandalwood generates a substantial amount of money and we have thought of starting a farm to help our efforts to purchase the Mua-i-Udu land near our village," he said.

"It takes 10 to 15 years for a tree to be mature but this is worth waiting for because the money will help us.

"We are not really sure about the cost of land because it is still being negotiated between the estate owners and the landowners."

Apart from the proposed project, Mr Tuqota said they would also carry out other income-generating projects.

"We will be undertaking many projects because we want to collect more money as soon as possible.

"We can't stop the rapid growth of the population in our village and I think we should take the first step to think of our children's future."
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1 comment:

darmayoga said...

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