Cane farmers say they want $15 million of $25 million EU grant

Two cane farmers, Lucilo Tech and Alvin Alfaro, have submitted a petition with a modest list of 30 signatures to Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Rene Montero, asking him to consider using funds they say the Government of Belize has earmarked for sugar road resurfacing to instead undertake rehabilitation of their cane fields, to purchase herbicides and insecticides, and to make other preparations for the next season—after what they say was another bad year for the industry.

Tech told Amandala that $15 million of the $25 million (granted under the EU Accompanying Measures for Sugar) would be adequate.

Amandala called Montero’s ministry on Wednesday and Thursday, but we were advised today that the minister has been out of office all week, and won’t be there until next Monday.

We spoke instead with acting CEO, Errol Gentle, and he told us that he knows nothing of the request of the cane farmers, but he promised to check into the matter.

Eric Eck, the head of the Committee of Management for the Belize Cane Farmers Association (BCFA), told our newspaper he knows nothing of the petition. He said Wednesday that the farmers are the ones who should decide how the funds should be spent.

Eck says, however, that to his knowledge, the funds are $18 million and not $25 million. He confirmed Tech’s reports, however, that $7.6 million was already given to the sugar cane industry for 2007-2008. He added that another $18 million would be disbursed over the next three years.

Even though Eck says that the cane farmers will decide how the funds will be used, Tech claims that the Committee of Management had already decided that the funds would be used to resurface sugar roads.

His appeal to Minister Montero is “...to set free a portion of these new funds of the recent EU allocation of BZ$25.2 million to provide as quickly as possible to our cane farmers fertilizers and herbicides that are now unavailable due to the suspension of the Fairtrade premium funds and to finance a massive rehabilitation.”

Tech continues: “...for two consecutive years our sugar cane production has plummeted down enormously and only this precious and blessed fund, if invested now as is required, will save the sugar industry and the livelihood [of] our hardworking cañeros.”

The letter concludes saying that if the few signatures on the letter are not taken seriously, they will have no choice but to embark on a massive signature campaign.

According to Tech, there are over 5,000 farmers who stand to benefit. However, he told our newspaper that he supports the United Cane Farmers Association’s move to set up a new association for cane farmers, as the existing association (BCFA), he claims, is not working for them.

He also said that the government has recently revived the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute (SIRDI) and commissioned it to look into the rehabilitation of sugar cane fields, but there is much that the farmers can do for themselves through the new association.

Documents recently made available to our newspaper indicate that the Fairtrade program for Belize had been suspended after an audit raised serious questions about the distribution of funds. For example, the audit pointed to exaggerated salaries, lack of bidding procedures for herbicides and pesticides, lack of accountability in some instances, and excessively high purchase costs for white marl.

There were also questions raised over whether all farmers were benefiting equally from Fairtrade funds. In a letter to ex-CEO of the BCFA Carlos Magaña, FLO-CERT, the independent certification agency for Fairtrade production, processes and products, advised the association via a letter dated April 1, 2009, that their certification was being suspended, effective April 7, and in order to lift the suspension, certain corrective actions would have to be completed within five months.

Those five months end September.

source: amandala