HARVESTING of sugar cane started in Kavanagasau yesterday despite farmers facing rail transportation problems.
The 84 farmers from that area had to resort to cane trucks to cart their cane to Lautoka Mill.
The Olosara sector depends heavily on railway lines to cart sugar cane to the Lautoka Mill and this has been completely cut off after the old Sigatoka Bridge collapsed during the floods in January.
Businessman Bob Kennedy said that about 4000 people from that area depended on sugar cane for their livelihood.
Mr Kennedy said that most of those people did not have any alternative source of livelihood.
Mr Kennedy suggested that the Fiji Sugar Corporation connect the Laselase railway by portable railway line over the Melrose Bridge to the railway line in front of the Post Office in Sigatoka Town.
"I have written a letter to the Prime Minister's Office as well as the Sigatoka Town Council," he said.
Growers between Natadola to Kavanagasau were advised to cart their canes to the Lautoka Mill by lorry because a portion of that tramline had been closed due to significant decline in production of cane in that area.
Fiji Sugar Corporation chief executive officer Deo Saran, in a statement, said that since there was no evidence that the levels of production in that area would increase in the foreseeable future, cane from those areas were transportable by lorry to the mill.
Mr Saran said the corporation had applied to the Sugar Industrial Tribunal to close portion of the Kavanagasau/ Rarawai tramline from Batiri Point to Kavanagasau. "This order by the tribunal means that FSC will no longer be providing rail service past Batiri Point," the statement said.
