Vanuatu’s Ministry of Agriculture has this week introduced farmers in the Port Vila area to a national program aimed at building up the nation’s agricultural sector.

The Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Moses Amos, says through the new program farmers will be able to purchase a rotavator machine by paying 30 per cent for the cost of a machine and with the government paying for the remaining 70 per cent.

He says the machines cost more than VT100,000 and are an important step in Vanuatu’s farmers thinking about cultivating larger areas of land to increase production.

The rotavator machines are a tool that uses blades to break up the soil and can save hours of manual labour when farmers are tilling the soil or adding nutrients to it.

This week over 20 farmers joined the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development training session on how to use rotavator machines, and some have already bought the machines for use on their farms.

This week was the first training in Port Vila with farmers, and the department plans to roll out the program and training to farmers nationally across the islands.