From a backyard plot in Navolau No.1, Ra, to the ballroom of the Grand Pacific Hotel, Alena Berauwa’s small-scale nursery has earned national recognition. The 38-year-old mother of five was named Nursery Farmer of the Year at the Women in Agriculture Symposium after turning a modest 2023 sandalwood seedling project into what organisers described as a rapidly expanding business.
Berauwa launched Alena’s Nursery in 2023, initially focusing on sandalwood, a tree prized for its timber and cultural value. In little more than a year she has broadened the operation’s scope, adding fruit trees, native plants and mangrove seedlings to her stock. The nursery now supplies plants to both the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Agriculture, a development that has helped raise her profile and commercial credibility.
The award, presented at the Women in Agriculture Symposium held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, recognises nursery-based entrepreneurs who demonstrate innovation, scale-up potential and community impact. Organisers said Berauwa stood out for her rapid expansion from home-based production to fulfilling institutional orders, and for her focus on restoring native and coastal vegetation through mangrove seedlings.
For Berauwa, the accolade is both personal and practical. A mother juggling household responsibilities, she said the nursery has provided a pathway to economic opportunity while contributing to environmental and food-security goals. “Start small and you’ll grow, just like my trees,” she told symposium delegates, urging other women to consider farming as a viable livelihood that can begin on a modest scale and expand over time.
Her ambitions go beyond Ra. Berauwa told organisers she wants to grow Alena’s Nursery into a business with reach across Fiji, supplying planting material to communities, government programmes and smallholder farmers. Supplying the Ministries of Forestry and Agriculture has given her a platform to scale up production and explore broader distribution, she said.
The recognition of Berauwa’s work at a national forum highlights a growing emphasis on women-led enterprises in Fiji’s agricultural sector. Small nurseries such as hers play an important role in reforestation, coastal protection and providing planting material for fruit and food gardens — areas that government agencies have increasingly sought to support.
Berauwa’s message at the symposium was practical: begin with what is available, learn as the business grows, and reinvest in capacity. Her award underscores how a backyard initiative can transition into a supplier of institutional orders and an example for other women considering a start in agriculture.
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