From dentistry to tomato farming - World Vegetable Center

From the July 2013 issue of Agrikalsa Nius, the newsletter of the Solomon Islands Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock:

SOLOMON ISLANDS — Directly on the other side of the Henderson International Airport terminal, beyond the runway’s perimeter fence, a farm field teems with luscious tomatoes of different shapes and sizes. It’s a farm that not many people who use the airport are aware of, yet it provides much of Honiara’s tomato supply to the main market.

Since 2006, self-taught farmer George Riifalu has been growing tomatoes—a passion the former dentist has cultivated into a promising business venture.

For Riifalu the path into farming was not straightforward. “I’ve always had an interest in farming,” he said. “At school I was very keen to learn and take part in farming. I took agriculture from form three to form five.” But it was another profession that captured Riifalu’s attention, and after leaving school he travelled to New Zealand to study dentistry.

He returned home and worked in the capital for a number of years, but with ethnic tension brewing, Riifalu went back to New Zealand in 1999. In Auckland he joined an old university friend and entered into private practice. “It was a great experience working with the latest technology at hand,” he recalled.

Riifalu returned home in 2006, after his mother passed away. It was then that he revived his interest in farming and settled on his uncle’s land near the airport. “I brought back a lot of seeds from New Zealand and started trialing them,” he said. “In 2007 I started working with AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center on tomato trials.”

Riifalu says his interest in tomatoes and fruit trees stems from the fact Solomon Islanders are over-reliant on imported food. “If you look at what we are eating every day, it is all coming in from overseas,” Riifalu said. “It’s expensive and unhealthy. I farm for my family; we eat what we grow and we make a livelihood from the fruit as well.”

With the support of AVRDC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL), Riifalu’s farm has become one of the biggest trial centers for tomatoes in Honiara. The outcome of the trials on tomato varieties on his farm will directly benefit farmers by providing information on the best performing varieties and growing methods.

“Nine varieties are being trialed from plants chosen by MAL and AVRDC,” he said. “Right now we are on the final trial before the best varieties are selected and distributed to farmers.”

Out of the nine varieties growing, Riifalu says he has identified four that he will grow on his farm after the trials are completed. The trials have also shown the weakness of locally sourced tomato seed. “Such seed hasn’t grown well, at all,” said Riifalu.

The vulnerability of tomatoes to fungal disease has challenged Riifalu’s production skills. “It’s because this land is prone to waterlogging, because of its closeness to the Lunga River and the run-off from the airport,” he said. With proper application of balanced NPK fertilizer, Riifalu is growing strong, vigorous plants that are thriving despite the damp growing conditions.