Renewed hope for sugar farmers as Ministry announces initiative
SUGAR cane farmers across the Western Division have praised the new initiative by the Coalition Government to remove deductions in the final cane payment ensuring that the farmers have sufficient funds to celebrate Diwali.
The promised initiative announced by the Ministry of Sugar was welcomed with much delight by farmers who have awaited such support.
Daven Prasad of Sabeto Nadi shared that farmers can now rejoice Diwali without the added strain of financial deductions, allowing them to fully partake in the festivities with their families and communities.
Expressing his gratitude, he said the Ministry of Sugar has recognised their needs and taken a proactive step to address them.
“We are deeply grateful to the Minister for this announcement. This will significantly improve the financial burden on us, especially during the festive season. We can now celebrate Diwali with peace of mind and joy in our hearts.”
Among the initiatives announced, the Ministry has also revealed plans to explore additional avenues for assistance by deferring deductions for fertilisers in a progressive manner.
Kitione Nasau of Naviago Village, Vitogo, Lautoka shared that this initiative, which aims to ease financial pressures on farmers, has been met with interest and optimism within the farming community.
He shared that the prospect of deferred deductions for fertilisers had injected a renewed sense of hope and farmers can reinject the money to increase the cane production as deductions will be done in the following year.
“The Government of the day is doing good work in assisting us in the sugar industry.”
“We know we are heading toward a positive direction & for that, we thank the Government for its vision and work currently being put in action,” Mr Nasau said.
“Not only are our concerns taken into consideration, we also receive valuable advice on how we can improve our production, especially for sugarcane.”
“This is something that we were never used to because as we all know, statistics and figures to deal with money are hardly discussed to us farmers.”
These initiatives and incentives are part of the Ministry of Sugar’s $50 million budget for this year to increase cane production which has decreased from 4.2 million tons to 1.6 million tons.