Sugarcane farmers are growing tired of the political bickering between stakeholders and are calling for a round table discussion to address issues affecting the industry, says Yalalevu, Ba sugarcane farmer Arvind Singh.
“Do not bring politics into this issue and stop the blame game because pointing fingers isn’t going to help anyone, so all the sugar stakeholders need to sit down and sort this out,” he said.
“The most important person who needs to be heading discussions is the Prime Minister because he is the Sugar Select Committee chairman, the Leader of the Opposition Inia Seruiratu is also a member of the committee; they need to work together.”
Mr Singh said another issue was the mechanical harvester operator waiting for farmers in his sector to agree collectively to harvest cane in their respective farms.
“I cannot harvest alone, I must wait for the rest of the farmers because this is what the operator has agreed to.”
Mr Singh said he had hoped to harvest 120 to 130 tonnes of cane this year, however, rising labour demands and operational costs were impacting him.
“The sugar industry is Fiji’s backbone, when there is an issue at the top, it will of course trickle down to the grassroots level.
“Everybody needs to take this seriously because 200,000 people are depending on the sugar industry directly or indirectly.”
