Solomons embracing cattle farming again

8:12 pm on 8 September 2015

The Solomon Islands Government is trying to revive the country's beef industry by distributing cattle to farmers.

Last weekend, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock began distributing animals from the Tenavatu Breeding Station to six selected farmers from Guadalcanal.

The process will continue next year during which farmers from other provinces will be given animals to raise.

In 2011, the government imported around 400 head of cattle from Vanuatu, at a cost of $US150 thousand dollars and they have been kept at the Tenavatu Farm in Central Guadalcanal while selected farms have been rehabilitated.

The government says the Solomons cattle industry was wrecked during the years of ethnic tension on Guadalcanal.

Cows in Rangiwahia, Manawatu.

Solomon Islands Government is trying is keen to advance a policy of distributing cattle to farmers. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson