BY JOY OFASIA
IT has become common for self-employed women vendors in Honiara’s informal sector to sell betel nuts on the streets or in marketplaces around the City as means to earn an income.
Such practice is helping women ease the burden of meeting family needs in the Solomon Islands.
Lily Nego, from New Kolina village in Central Guadalcanal, also frequents the marketplaces in Honiara City but with a different product.
Ms. Nego plants and sells locally made tobacco, commonly known as Savu Savu.
According to the mother of four children, she can meet her family demands by selling Savu Savu and claims she makes good money out of it compared to when she used to sell betel nuts.
She usually sells her products at the Kukum market, White River market in West Honiara and sometimes caters for orders from her customers in Central Province.
But before getting the finished product to the markets, Ms. Nego goes through a long process of preparing her homemade tobacco.
“First we do the nursery before transplanting. It takes two months for that particular plant to be ready for harvest but sometimes the harvest depends on the fertility of the soil,” Ms. Nego told Solomon Women Newspaper.
“After harvest, we peel the vein off the back of the tobacco leaf and then hang them to dry in a warm place like in the kitchen for four days.
“But it also depends on the weather, if it’s the wet season then it will take more time to dry.
“After it is been tried we put them in a parcel of leaves to be cooked in a home oven,” Ms. Nego explained.
She said her biggest challenge is transporting her products to the markets in town.
“I also need help managing my farm like removing unwanted plants,” Ms. Nego said.
