NORTHWEST GUADALCANAL NONI FARMERS BENEFIT FROM FIRST HARVEST

Northwest Guadalcanal Noni Farmers can now enjoy the benefits of selling noni from their farms.

Thanks to the Solomon Noni Corporation to reopen its Noni buying program after it stopped last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This morning, Northwest Guadalcanal Subsistence Farmers Association Chairman Bernard Garo was privileged to harvest his noni farm for the first time.

Mr Garo started venturing into noni farming recently.

He said, the Constituency Subsistence Farmers Association is very excited with their Member of Parliament to see the importance of reopening the Corporation.

“For me this is my first time to harvest noni. I only advocate for it but today, I’m very happy to also sell noni from my farm. Now I am getting benefits out from my farm,” Mr Garo said.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Northwest Guadalcanal Hon. Bodo Detke said, the North West Constituency Farmers Processing Facility has been closed for about a year due to a lot of factors.

“We all know that COVID-19 has affected the whole world and our buyers were affected. Another reason is we are still waiting for our incentive from the Ministry of Finance to be exempted from paying tax for two years now but we are still hopeful l as the government has assured us that it will give us the exemption,” Hon. Dettke said.

He added, they are hopeful to get support from the government because it’s a pioneer industry and not too many people really understand the benefits of noni fruit.

Hon Bodo said, there is a lot of potential for noni to excel and benefit the country because of its demand in other countries.

SIBC News is aware that farmers in Northwest Guadalcanal will go through a few hours of educational awareness on how to pick the right noni fruit before commencing their harvest.

The Chairman of the North West Guadalcanal Constituency Subsistence Farmers Association Bernard Garo was assigned to conduct the awareness for farmers.

By Gina Maka’a