The Ministry of Sugar and Fiji Sugar Corporation will keep an eye on “dishonest” farmers who tend to take assistance money and don’t deliver cane to the mills.
Permanent Secretary for Sugar Ministry Yogesh Karan made the comments on Saturday at a Sugar Cane Growers Fund open day in Sigatoka.
“As you know we are putting in millions of dollars in fertiliser subsidy and weedicide subsidy,” he said.
“I want to assure you that there will be a very close monitoring by the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Ministry together with the Sugar Cane Growers Council.
“We want to ensure that this money is put into best use – I must say despite putting in so much money we have some dishonest farmers who have taken the money and not fulfilled the requirements of sending the cane to the mills.
“They didn’t look after the farms so now we will be scrutinising. We have to use all the allocations wisely.”
He encouraged farmers to take advantage of the new budget by working hard to increase their cane production. The Ministry of Sugar was allocated $49.7 million in the budget.
The ministry was given $11 million specifically to increase cane production from the present 1.6 million tonnes to 1.9 million tonnes by 2024
