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Apisaki Nadalo is a 62-year-old women farmer that farms at Kabisi, Nadroga.

She is a retired hotel worker and lives with her husband and 12-year-old grandson at Emuri, Nadroga. Most of her time was spent at home so Apisaki tapped on farming as a hobby.

After leasing a piece of land at Kabisi that was previously a sugarcane field, Apisaki and her husband decided to shift from sugarcane and trial other crops that would grow well on their farm.

“During the lockdown, we had an abundance of pawpaw and ‘Duruka’ Saccharum edule in the farm, because of the lockdown we were struggling to get our products sold to the market’’ says Apisaki.

Duruka usually sold fast on the roadside when in season but because movement was restricted there wasn’t much sales since there was less traveling on the road compared to Pre-COVID-19.

She continued by saying “PIRAS was a God-sent blessing to me personally as I was experimenting with things on my farm and had very little knowledge on farming.”

Agriculture training for farmers in Sigatoka through PIRAS covered topics on nursery management, plant propagation, composting, and pest and diseases. It was an opportunity for Apisaki to learn new concepts and apply them on her farm. COVID-19 left many farmers in the lurch but women farmers like Apisaki are slowly thriving again with the hopes that many others will learn to recover from COVID-19.