Department of Agriculture expenditures for this year’s Farm Fair totaled more than $80,000 in cash prizes and while local farmers are pleased with the prizes, many of them had complained that DoA took  too long to release the cash awards.

Agriculture director Lealao Melila Purcell says his department started distributing the cash prizes two weeks ago, with the highest prize amount at $1,800 and the lowest at $500 — with the overall amount at more than $80,000 for all prizes.

Lealao went on to explain that the reason for the delay in handing out prizes for the Farm Fair was because the department first went through putting together the scores, as well as setting up prizes for the different category competitions.

He also said that the prizes were distributed just in time for Christmas — which was helpful to the farmers and their families during this happy time of the year.

“It was not an easy task for the committee in putting the scores together for the many divisions of the competition,” he said, adding that “despite complaints from some farmers due to the lateness in distributing prizes, it's very important that the farmers are happy with the prizes they received. It was worth the wait for them,” he stated.

Lealao shared with Samoa News the shock on the faces of some farmers when they saw the huge amounts of their cash prizes. For example, one elderly farmer said that he didn’t think the amounts were going to be very big.

This is the third year of the Farm Fair, and it's the first time that cash prizes were handed out, compared to the past two years when farm equipment and other items were given to farmers as prizes.

More than 100 farmers registered for the Farm Fair and Lealao said it was very important that all those who registered and competed received a gift or cash prize for their hard work and dedication to farming.

With cash prizes in hand to help with their Christmas holidays, farmers quickly praised Lealao and his department. He said there were no complaints such as occurred immediately after the Farm Fair when farmers were angry for not their getting prizes right away.

Several farmers called Samoa News to share their excitement and express appreciation to Lealao and the government when they received their cash prizes.

Pavaiai farmer Vili Apineru acknowledged that there were a lot of complaints and criticism against Agriculture for the long delay in releasing Farm Fair prizes, “but we have received prizes which are useful for the Christmas holiday,” he said.

Farmer Arieta Galoia says that farmers who criticized and complained against Lealao and his department shouldn’t have done so in the first place, but should have been patient and allowed the government time to finalize all prizes for the competition, which was not an easy task.

She also pointed out that some of the farmers had very harsh criticism against Agriculture, as reported in Samoa News. She suggested that farmers who had harshly criticized the department should go apologize to Lealao.

When asked for a comment, Lealao said that what’s important to him and the government is that prizes have now been distributed to the farmers, and this is a great financial help to to farmers during the holidays.

One farmer who called Samoa News said that he was very surprised to find that his prize was just over $600.

(Original Samoan story was published in the Dec. 20 edition of To’asavaili)