When she traded a librarian’s desk for the unpredictability of the field, Subashni Lal expected hard work. What she did not anticipate was how quickly setbacks would force her to reinvent an entire enterprise — and then turn it into a platform for other women farmers.
Lal registered Freedom Farms (Fiji) in 2020 and bought her first plot in Vatusui, Ba that year, clearing dense bush and planting fruit trees as COVID-19 lockdowns began. The pandemic months brought immediate challenges: neighbouring cattle trampled early plantings and later pig hunters devastated a 200-tonne sugarcane crop on a second, larger property she purchased in September 2021. Those losses, Lal says, convinced her to shift decisively away from sugarcane toward diversified cash crops and livestock suited to local markets and changing weather patterns.
The pivot has been rapid. Freedom Farms now spans 11 productive acres, and Lal plans to expand by about five acres each year while adding two new crops annually. Her current portfolio includes cassava, long beans, sorghum, pulses, papaya, rice, mushrooms and more than a dozen fruit varieties — many chosen for climate resilience and local or export market value. Practical investments followed strategic shifts: unable to source machinery locally, she bought a 75-horsepower tractor and seven implements, fenced paddocks and acquired two farm vehicles, all funded from farm earnings.
Innovation on the farm includes low-cost, circular approaches. Lal introduced Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) as a protein-rich feed for poultry, which she says has improved growth rates and cut feed costs. Solar-powered incubators now hatch up to 150 chicks a month across more than 10 breeds; poultry is sold both for meat and as breeding stock, providing steady cash flow. Lal also produces liquid compost on-site and experiments with organic crop rotations to preserve soil fertility.
Freedom Farms has begun to serve beyond its own balance sheet. In 2022 Lal organised a local cluster of women vegetable and livestock farmers and was elected Vice President of All Women in Agriculture, Ba. She works with community groups, schools and vulnerable households to share training and demonstrate smallholder mechanisation and sustainable feed systems. “Farming has given me more than just an income — it’s given me purpose,” Lal said, framing her work as livelihoods and capacity building.
The latest development in Lal’s enterprise is a formal collaboration to establish a mushroom production and training centre in Ba. Freedom Farms is partnering with Nukuloa College and the China–Fiji Juncao Technology Demonstration Center to build the facility as a hands-on learning hub for students and aspiring farmers. That partnership formalises the farm’s role as a technology demonstration site — showing BSFL systems, Juncao mushroom cultivation, solar incubation and other practices — and signals a shift from single-farm entrepreneurship to an institutional training focus.
Lal, who grew up on a modest cane block in Tabia, Labasa and worked as a librarian at institutions including the University of the South Pacific and Fiji National University before becoming a full-time farmer in 2021, credits family support for her progress. Her husband, Sarath Sasidharan, and daughter, Shivala, are cited as key supporters. With targeted expansion plans and an emphasis on women-led training, Freedom Farms aims to translate a hard-earned personal comeback into wider community resilience and new agricultural careers in Ba.
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