Canal Fanafo farmers benefit from Cattle Restocking Programme

May 13, 2025 9:54 pm | Posted in Business News | Share now TwitterFacebook

By Bruce Tamata.

Cattle farmers in Canal Fanafo, Santo, and surrounding areas are set to benefit from the Department of Livestock’s (DoL) recent three-day training.

This training, which concluded last Friday, forms part of the Cattle Restocking Programme (CRP) delivered to smallholder cattle farmers from Canal Fanafo who have been actively involved in the initiative.

Throughout the training, participants took part in classroom discussions on animal husbandry and health, along with practical fieldwork. These hands-on sessions introduced farmers to recommended methods for building stockyards and growing pasture.

Mr. Greg Tavoasese, a small-scale dairy and cattle farmer at Jubilee Farm, spoke about his experience with the CRP.

“Through the programme, I was given three cows, which have since produced six calves, increasing the number of cattle on my farm,” he said.

Mr. Tavoasese added that the training has helped farmers follow recommended cattle farming practices provided by the DoL, aimed at boosting herd size and improving practices across the cattle sector.

“For those of us already raising cattle, this training is very useful. I’ve been farming for years, but I had never built a stockyard. Now I understand how important it is, especially for a dairy farm,” he said.

The cattle farmer is pleased that, as part of the training, participating farmers—under the guidance of livestock officers—will build a stockyard and re-pasture a paddock on his farm. This site will be used as a demonstration model for other dairy farms in Canal Fanafo.

Mr. Tavoasese’s father is acknowledged by the DoL as one of the first small-scale dairy producers in Santo, according to Small Livestock Nursery Officer, Mr. Alexander Lenga.

Mr. Lenga said the programme will support farmers like Mr. Tavoasese in restarting dairy production and growing the cattle sector in Vanuatu.

Tavoasese confirmed that he is committed to restarting dairy operations, with plans to produce fresh milk daily.

In the final phase of the training, farmers were introduced to land-use techniques that make full use of available space. According to Mr. Lenga, two hectares of land on Mr. Tavoasese’s property have been cleared.

There, farmers received planting demonstrations and were shown how to grow pasture alongside root crops such as kumala (sweet potato).

“There are many ways to grow pasture for cattle, but the methods recommended by the Department of Livestock help us make the most of our land,” the cattle farmer said.

“Since pasture takes at least three months to mature before grazing, we can intercrop with kumala in the meantime.”

Although the training was mainly for farmers in Canal Fanafo, some travelled from areas as far as inland Big Bay to attend, showing the strong interest sparked since the CRP began.

The CRP, led by the DoL under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, and Biosecurity (MALFB), is a national effort to rebuild the livestock industry by increasing the population of key livestock species, particularly cattle.

Launched in 2015, the programme aims to raise the number of cattle owned by small-scale farmers to 500,000 by the year 2025.

While final reports are not yet available, Mr. Lenga mentioned that it is too early to confirm whether the target of 500,000 cattle has been reached. However, he noted that progress has been made, especially in SANMA Province, where most of the country’s small-scale cattle farms are located.