EXORBITANT land rent increases continued to dominate talks at the National Sugar Industry Policy consultation in Tavua this week.
Yaladro farmer Suren Sahai said the issue posed a major challenge for farmers.
“The reassessment of rentals is every five years, so my suggestion on behalf of my growers would be to have the reassessments every 10 or 15 years,” he said.
In response, Lands Minister Ashneel Sudhakar said his ministry and the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB) were following a regulation which required assessments to be conducted every five years.
“It’s based on the market value of the land, things like topography, distance from the main centres, soil type, et cetera,” he said.
“This issue has been raised numerous times and I understand that some of the farms have thousands of dollars in rental and we are definitely going to look into this.”
