Grace works the land

 By BEATRICE BONAKOYA

WOMEN have broken barriers in the male-dominated domain but for Grace Manai it is sheer pleasure climbing mountains, walking distances where there is no road link, and ploughing the land to help farmers in the Kairuku–Hiri district.

She drives a tractor, operates a dinghy and walks where her job as an agriculture officer takes her.

Manai hails from Rabaraba district in Milne Bay but has been working with the Central Province Division of Agriculture for 15 years.

Being the only woman agriculture officer, Manai has thrived from being a simple “Didimeri” to becoming the district agriculture coordinator, a position which Central Provincial Agriculture adviser Kila Gege says she has earned over the years.

“She’s proven that she can do a better job so we promoted her from being a food security officer to agriculture coordinator,” Gege told The National.

Manai has travelled vastly throughout the province since 2000 when she joined Abau district as a food security officer. 

Part of her work involves teaching backyard gardening where a variety of nutritional food crops is encouraged, teaching personal hygiene and how to balance meals in the absence of protein. 

“I prefer PMV for transportation but I do a lot of walking. I don’t believe in travelling by vehicle and just visiting for an hour and moving on because extension means visiting farmers, talking with them and staying overnight to give enough time for people to come and talk to you,” Manai explained.  

“Most people work on the land during the day so evenings are a good time to talk with them to see how they are going.” 

Manai helps farmers and other individuals with written proposals to start up farming projects in the district and ensuring the projects go through the necessary stages of becoming successful. One of her achievements was helping a farmer, Emmanuel Oa, with a super-tilapia project in Mainohana, Bereina. He had started with 500 fingerlings last October.

“I just visited him two weeks ago and he is doing very well. He started with one cage of fingerlings, that’s 500. He started multiplying them by putting one male with five females. He now has 8000. When they mature he sells,” she explained.  

An average sized super tilapia grows to 30 centimetres and can sell at K10.