Traditional Fijian root crops may not be an important issue of discussion in our community nowadays as people, particularly farmers, are more into hybrid varieties of crops for commercial farming.
However, there are still people in the communities who are passionate about retaining traditional root crops and traditional methods of farming.
Suliana Siwatibau, a famous name in the local academic arena, is someone who is working hard to retain at least some of these traditional crops because she believes it is important to retain the root crops and food Fiji is known for.
She is also interested in traditional crops, not just because they are special to Fiji, but also because they enable us to keep a large gene pool which means that we have a larger stock of crop features we can develop in future to adapt to changes both in the environment and for consumer needs.
Nestled in the lush green of Wailoku outside Suva is her almost 12-acre property, which is home to the varieties of traditional root crops she's managed to collect from around the country as part of her struggle to keep traditional root crops alive.
"I have found out that as we commercialise farming, we begin to lose our traditional root crop varieties, I am glad that I have some of the cultivars of dalo, cassava, bananas, plantains and wild yams," Mrs Siwatibau said.
Because of this passion, Mrs Siwatibau, a botanist travelled to many places around the country to collect cultivars of these traditional root crops but, while she couldn't get a hold of many of them, she was relieved that she could at least collect a few different varieties.
