TOMASI Nabogi of Waikubukubu Village near the highlands of Nadarivatu decided to enter cane farming more than a decade ago in the hope of earning enough money to support his family.
After 13 years of trying, the 58-year-old farmer said he is ready to give up.
“I’m not making any money,” he said.
“I’ve spent the last 13 years trying to pay off the $18,000 loan I took to buy my 20-acre farm.
“All the money that I get I try to pay some of the loan and I tell you it’s very difficult to get any kind of money from sugar cane farming.”
Mr Nabogi bought the land from a relative and got an agriculture lease for 30 years.
From the outset, he began to have issues.
“This is native land and I have trouble trying to pay off the loan and my land rent to TLTB.
“My lease expired recently and I have not been able to pay my rent.”
He says he is frustrated because of the amount of effort that he put into the farm did not equate with the very low to nil returns from cane.
“Last year, I only harvested 19 tonnes of cane.
“I did not make any money, everything went to my deductions for fertilizer and chemicals.
“This year I want to harvest 90 tonnes and even that amount is not enough to keep my farm running.
“It’s really frustrating because we are working with very little money but the expenses is too much. “We have to pay for the cane transfer, fertilizer and weedicide. I have not made any profit since 2014.
“Even though TLTB is trying to arrange some kind of payment from me, I can’t meet that arrangement because my payments will depend on the money I get from the harvest.”