Government subsidy on weedicide has been reduced for sugarcane farmers.
This was confirmed by Ministry of Sugar director for Policy Reshmi Kumari, who explained that farmers should expect an increase of their payments for the four chemicals, diuron, valpar king, glyphosate and amine.
“The prices are still the same, only the subsidy component has changed,” she said. “Government used to pay 65 per cent of the total price of the weedicide, now it has been reduced to 20 per cent.
“So the farmers will be paying 80 per cent of the total price.” She said this was because of a reduction in the budgetary allocation for the weedicide subsidy program under the 2021/2022 National Budget.
“We used to get over $6 million for the subsidy program but now we are getting half a million. So we’ve had to reduce Government’s subsidy for weedicide.”
She said awareness on the changes to the policy had been conducted by the Sugar Cane Growers Council. “I have asked the SCGC to send out their offi cers and create awareness on these changes to the weedicide subsidy.
“We are urging our farmers to come please contact SCGC if they have any queries about the increased costs of the weedicide they are buying.”
Ms Kumari was responding to concerns raised by Ba farmers who were surprised to discover they had to dig deeper into their pockets to purchase the weedicides.
Sugar Cane Growers Council CEO Vimal Dutt said farmers purchased the weedicide from the council offices where they were advised of the prices changes.
He said the council would continue to carry out awareness programs for growers who were still unaware of the policy change.
South Pacific Fertilizer CEO Ashween Ram said the prices of fertiliser and weedicide remained the same
