Landowners minor players in sugar industry: FSC

A very small percentage of landowners in Fiji are involved in sugar cane farming, the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) has revealed.

It has also been revealed that of the total annual sugar production, landowners contribute only 15 per cent.

FSC chief executive officer Deo Saran said the corporation was now at a conceptual stage of developing a model that would prove effective in engaging landowners in cane farming.

He said to bring the Fijian farmers and landowners into farming, the critical success factor was organising and equipping them with the necessary expertise and resources for them work together.

“That is feasible because there have been other models in place where Fijian landowners and farmers are very successful on really working on the farms,” Saran said.

“You look at the pine industry, it is a huge success. The entire pine industry has really been participated only by the landowners and they have very successfully organised themselves into operating unit for them to undertake the cultural operations on the farms and do husbandry practices,” he said.

“So, for sugar cane too, we just have to find out what is an appropriate and suitable model for their engagement and involvement into farming.”

Saran said the traditional small family-owned model had not worked that well for the involvement of landowners and Fijians who cultivated cane.

While developing the model for landowners and Fijian farmers, he said the FSC was mindful that it would need the involvement of landowners into cane farming “if we were to have a sustainable growth of the sugar industry, and only then will there be total resource-based engagement by the landowners”.

“And it also makes a lot of sense to involve the principal stakeholders in a meaningful way in the industry rather than just seeking their participation,” he said.

Saran said the study the FSC had in mind was to upgrade farm infrastructure to help them carry out cane farming.

“We are considering looking at alternative farming models that would make easier for landowners to come into farming. Right now, there’s a very small percentage of landowners who are into farming,” he said.

“And principally, because the current model of small cane family-owned structure makes it difficult to sort of be sustainable and succeed in cane farming.”

Saran said once assistance was provided for landowners, “it should at least increase (their cane production) from 15 per cent to around 30-45 per cent, or even more”.

In the meantime, he said the FSC was holding ongoing discussions with the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) for the provision of idle prime land to be utilised for cane farming.

source:Fijilive