Farming, in whatever form or shape, is a moneymaker.

Tagiloa Eteuati, of Vaoala knows this. He is a farmer himself; who specializes in vegetables especially the watercress. 

The 51-year-old was on his way back from checking up on his watercress patch when he was spotted by the Village Voice team.

“I’m working to develop my watercress plantation because that’s another way for me to make some extra cash,” he told Village Voice.

“I work, I’m actually one of the employees for a family up here but today I decided to take a day off so I could come up and see.”

“I’m telling you, this means a lot to me because, it’s another way for me to make money and also use it to make food for my family.”

According to Mr. Eteuati, it takes about a month to nurture and grow these plants. 

“A month is all it takes for the watercress to become well developed so when it’s ready, then I prepare it and sell it off to people.” 

He went on “This is one of the vegetables that Samoan people really love to eat and you know in restaurants, they also use this to make food especially soup.”

“That’s why I sell it at the market when I’m not working on Saturdays.”

“It’s a good working life for me because I earn about $250 from my real job and then more money from selling the watercress.”

“This is all for my wife and my five children to help in their education.”

“So everything is going well for our family, and for our village as a whole; we are doing just fine. Sure we don’t do curfews but we are still a village.”

“We contribute to village and church obligations and we have a very good committee counseling our people.”