FIJI APV Project

23/02/2025

The KOICA PMC team successfully sold crops harvested from a test bed farm in the 200kW Agrophotovoltaic system from 2023 to 2024 to Fiji Agro Marketing and Ovalau Village, and held an event on February 7, 2024 to donate the profits to the Ovalau Agriculture Co-operative. The donation will be used as the initial operating capital for the Ovalau Agriculture Co-operative, which has been in operation since 2023, and will be used to purchase agricultural supplies such as crop seeds and fertilizers. The KOICA PMC team is conducting consulting and related research on crop harvesting from the 200kW Agrophotovoltaic system, establishing a crop distribution network, and building an agricultural technology center to ensure smooth agricultural activities in the 4MW Agrophotovoltaic system to be built in Bureta, Ovalau in future.

29/12/2024

As part of Agrophotovotaic Project co-operative activities, the PMC team executive to estblish and register OVALAU AGRICULTURE CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED and open a bank account since 2022.
As a result, the PMC team and OVALAU AGRICULTURE CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED successfully opened a cooperative account in December 2024. This development enables the PMC team to deposit the revenue generated from the sale of crops cultivated under solar panels into the cooperative's operating fund.

28/08/2024

As part of their agricultural project activities, the PMC team conducted a 2-day training to strengthen agricultural cooperative operation capabilities on August 16 and 17, 2024. The target audience is the members of the Ovalau Agriculture Co-operative Limited.
The contents of the training strengthened the the capacity of the cooperative based on the distribution of crops produced as a result of the first and second demonstration packaging carried out at 200KW APV farm in Bureta.
Prof.Kim from Dongkook Univ instructed on project background, role and composition of cooperatives, operational cases of cooperatives, methods of storing and distributing major crops, and major tasks for the operation and management of cooperatives. Also, Prof.Kim gave Guidance farmers' cooperative members the mindset to produce their own crops from 4MW farming solar in the future, smooth distribution of the produced crops, and generating continuous profits.
Mrs Qoro attended as a lecturer and cooperative member in the training. She gave a lecture to co-operative member in Itaukei. She encouraged them to manage the co-operative for their future.
Many audiences gave their feedback that, The training was a big challenge, and gave them a new mindset.

25/07/2024

The PMC team conducted a 4-day farmer empowerment training program from the last week of June to the first week of July 2024, as part of their agricultural project activities. The target audience for the training included local residents from four villages: Levuka, Nasinu, Lovoni, and Bureta. The program covered topics such as crop cultivation, pest and w**d control, horticultural crops, and field visits (on-site guidance), through consultations with experts in crop cultivation and horticulture under APV.

This project is operated with the support of KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency), aiming to adapt farmers' agriculture to climate change and increase their income through education.

This training was the fourth out of a total of five training sessions, and one more session is planned for the villages in the future.

25/07/2024

Here is the translated text into English:

The PMC team conducted a 4-day farmer empowerment training program from February 19th to 22nd, 2024, as part of their agricultural project activities. The target audience for the training included local residents from four villages: Levuka, Nasinu, Lovoni, and Bureta. The program covered topics such as crop cultivation, and horticultural expert consultations on crop cultivation under APV, crop management (transplanting, staking, mulching, irrigation), and soil (fertilization management) techniques.

The costs for the training program, including attendance fees and catering, were supported by the KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) budget.

This training was the third out of a total of five training sessions, and two more sessions are planned for the villages in the future.

25/07/2024

This project is an agrivoltaic project supported by KOICA, where the PMC team is currently operating a farm under APV The farm is managed under the guidance of Professor Soo Min Kim (Dankook University, Horticulture Major), and various crops are being cultivated and tested to find suitable crops for the environment of Ovalau and under the APV
Through this project, the PMC team shares the following regarding the environment of Ovalau and the types and growth of crops under the APV
Through this project, the PMC team shares the following regarding the environment of Ovalau and the types and growth of crops under the APV
Fiji has a warm tropical climate, with a maximum temperature range of 25 to 31 degrees Celsius. Due to the high temperature, the evaporation rate (a process speed for water exchange between soil and atmosphere) is relatively high. Thus, some water-intensive vegetable crops such as cabbage, growing vegetables are very challenging to grow in open-filed in FIJI. Moreover, both strong sunlight and higher temperature can damage the leafy vegetables by reducing photosynthesis efficiency or increasing water stress. Most vegetables have C3 photosynthetic pathway, which means that they are not good at high temperatures. In addition, FIJI has frequent rainy days, which causes heavy water and soil erosions in open-field farmlands. A good shading system in Fiji farmlands may play an important role in sustainable vegetable production in FIJI.
Agrophotovoltaic (APV) systems have increasingly gained attention from many scientists and policymakers. In Island countries where land areas are limited, the APV system that integrates solar energy and agricultural activity can increase land use efficiency in the Island. In addition, solar panels in APV provide shade that can prevent strong sunlight and heavy rainfall during the vegetable growing season. There is an on-going project called “Fiji Agrophotovoltaic Project in Ovalau”. The overall goal of this project is to install 4MWp APV in nationwide FIJI. This project consists of two main parts: solar energy and agriculture. The main goal of the agricultural sector is to develop efficient APV cropping management. Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) - The PMC team has started a pilot project to test crop growth eligibility under 200kw APV installed on Ovalau, FIJI in 2023. Agriculture machinery tools (e.g. hand walking tractor, auto-sprayer, etc.) have been introduced to farmers to do the farming activities for this project. Various vegetables, fruit, and root crops such as chili, tomato, cabbage, dalo, etc. have been planted in the APV system. Since the solar panels provided a negative shading effect for the plant growth in the APV system, it is very important to identify crops that can provide good yields. Based on the first trial crop test from the project, among the test crops, root crops (e.g. dalo) and fruit crops (e.g. eggplants) were doing well in the APV system. However, further studies on designing cropping management plans suited for APV systems are still needed to increase crop growth rates and maximize their yields. Through multiple field trials consisting of different combinations of crop types and management plans, the KOICA-PMC team has planned to provide an APV cropping model for FIJI Island.

07/02/2024

THE OVALAU AGRICULTURE COOPERATIVE STARTS TO SELL CROP
The Ovalau Agriculture Cooperative has started crop production at the 200 kilowatts (KW) APV system at the Bureta site as a part of crop harvesting experiments identifying a list of crops eventually contributing to income increase of cooperative’s members and resolving the food security issue in Ovalau Island. The cooperative has built its supply chain and sold various crops (eggplant, long bean, tomato, Chinese cabbage, etc.) to Fiji Agro Marketing.
Ovalau Agriculture Cooperative has been found in Breta village as a part of the Fiji-Korea Agrophotovoltaic (APV) Project which aims to reduce the carbon footprint on the island of Ovalau and greatly benefit farmers on the maritime island in the Lomaiviti Group.
The project is funded by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and implemented by the project management consulting (PMC) group consisting of Dankook University, Dongguk University-Seoul, and Envelops Co. Ltd. It is a milestone achievement for Fiji as the large-scale solar power plant involving agriculture activities is the first of its kind in the Pacific region.

23/11/2023

14/11/2023

The PMC team conducted a 4-day agricultural machinery training program as part of their agricultural project activities from July 27th to August 2nd. The target audience for the training included local residents from four villages: Levuka, Nasinu, Lovoni, and Bureta. The program covered topics such as types of agricultural machinery, operation methods, safety, and the importance of agricultural machinery.
This machinery training will be instrumental in enhancing the convenience of agricultural practices for the local residents, especially through the tractors and accessories, RTV, and hand tractors that will be supported by KOICA in the future. The training program costs, including attendance fees and catering, were supported by KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) budget.
Based on this training, KOICA plans to provide additional agricultural machinery support to Fiji's Ministry of Agriculture in December.

17/08/2023

In February and May of 2023, the 2nd round of crop cultivation training based on the Agrophotovoltaic (APV) system took place in the four districts of Ovalau Island: Bureta, Levuka, Nasinu, and Lovoni. This project, supported by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), is being operated by Dankook University, Dongguk University, and Envelops as experts in agriculture, marketing, and energy. The recent training involved agricultural experts from both universities and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) collaborating to provide education.

Building upon the 1st round of training in 2022, this session focused on delivering enhanced crop cultivation techniques to the farmers of Ovalau, Fiji. The training consisted of content related to cultivation management techniques, including transplanting, pruning, grafting, and irrigation. Notably, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), who are also part of the research institute and specialized in horticulture, participated in the training. They provided both theoretical education and practical hands-on support throughout the training sessions.
Moving forward, there are plans for agricultural machinery training and three rounds of enhanced horticultural crop cultivation technique training. As the cultivation of crops under the APV system progresses, education will be conducted in accordance with the corresponding farming methods.

25/05/2023

The PMC team conducted a 14-night, 15-day training programme from May 6th to May 20th as part of their activities in the agrivoltaic project. For this training. A total of 10 participants from the village of Ovalau, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development participated in the training programme.

The training programme included inviting experts in the field of agriculture and energy from Korea to provide education on smart agricultural technologies, renewable energy projects, cooperative operation, and cultivation practices in agrivoltaic project. farms. Additionally, field visits were arranged to organizations such as the Rural Development Administration, the National Sejong Arboretum, the solar energy company , and the Korea Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives to provide diverse on-site learning experiences related to agrivoltaic project.

Furthermore, the participants of the training programme developed action plans for implementing relevant aspects in their respective fields, aiming to contribute to the sustainable development of agrivoltaic farm operations and Fiji's progress.
The training programme including airfare, meals, accommodation, and activity expenses, was supported by the budget provided by KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency).

Following the training programme, the PMC team plans to provide crop cultivation training to farmers in the 4 districts of Ovalau (Levuka, Nasinu, Lovoni, Bureta) starting from late May.