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BITTER MATHS: Sugarcane farmers better off ploughing an acre every year after harvest and substituting with other crops to make ends meet!

31/1/2016

4 Comments

 

*Escalating harvesting and transportation cost close to $40 per tonne - 50%.
*Harvesting costs $25
* Transportation costs $15

* Balance $40 for fertilizer, chemicals, labour for planting, weeding
* Profit Margin of $10 per tonne.
Fijileaks: An average farmer with 100 tonnes harvest makes $1000 profit from a year's hard work. If you take out family labour then farmers end up with negative earnings. A message to farmers:  plough an acre every year after harvest and substitute with other crops!


Cane farmers plead for change in fertiliser price

Sugarcane farmers complaining about the cost of chemical used in sugar cane field voiced their grievances during a Talanoa session with the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at Koronubu in Ba.

A concerned cane farmer says the government should look into this chemical price increase.

“The government if they could subsidise the chemicals for sugarcane as well as where the prices of chemicals are really very high. I humbly request the honourable Prime Minister to look into this matter seriously so our poor farmers can benefit through the help of the government.”

Fiji Sugar Co-operation CEO Abdul Khan says the government has done everything to cater for the sugar cane farmers.

“Just on sugar cane industry itself, if you go back 5 years from now when you getting about $45 a ton, the cost of your fertilizer, the cost of your weedicides etc was about the same. From $45 with the help of government and through the various re structure that government has put in place is it went to 45 to close to $80 and the year before last, you got paid to close to $89 yet your cost of fertilizer didn’t go up nor did you cost of weedicide. So to make statements like that you really need to substantiate that. So the margins that has gone to the farmers is a lot greater now than it’s had been about 5 years ago.” - See more at: http://www.fbc.com.fj/fiji/37044/cane-farmers-plead-for-change-in-fertiliser-price#sthash.fu1gbFow.dpuf
4 Comments
Ramanna
31/1/2016 10:13:54 pm

Support the concerns of the farmers.
Enquiring if Mr Khan has a sugarcane farm. If no then no dead hand factor, figures don't make an industry.

Reply
pita
31/1/2016 11:39:32 pm

Why confine cane farmers to growing alternative crops only on one acre after harvest. Existing gross margins data for alternative crops in Fiji show cane farmers would multiply their returns if they full diversify away from sugar.
Sugar is a sunset industry for Fiji. We can't compete with countries like Brazil with thousands of square Kilometres of flat land under sugar using highly mechanised technologies

Reply
Why Not Beans?
1/2/2016 09:35:00 pm

Sugarcane land / lease appears classified land for sugar cane farming only. This means only 15% of land can be diverted for other use such as grazing for cows, cash crop, etc.

In the past subsistent farmers used to plant beans in between cane to get a harvest of beans before sugarcane plants took over.

The land also was left with beans in the field so that was providing nitrogen to soil to grow the cane with reduced fertilizer needs.

Reply
Krishna
2/2/2016 09:08:55 pm

I read an interesting publication relating to the gross margain study in the Fiji's Sugar belt, based on 2012 prices. Available at http://www.coordination-unit.com/uploads/5/2/6/2/52621955/crops_for_fiji-gross_margin.pdf
In it, the gross margin per hectare is $6,094.80, so there are 2.14 acres in a hectare, making it $2,848.04 per acre!
Since most farm in Fiji are on an acreage basis, this income is practically nothing to assist the household with basic needs for survival.
Inputs such as land prep, fertilizer/chemicals, transportation, and harvesting takes a huge chunk, and prices are not always consistent for every season and differ by locations.
We must remember most farmers are already below the poverty line, any added cost would be a hassle

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