Africa-Press – Eswatini. A sponsorship of E411 000 has been made available for this year’s Smallholder Sugar cane Growers Competition.
This was revealed by the Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) acting CEO Banele Nyamane during this year’s presentation ceremony held at Umtfombo Wemphilo Farmers Association in Mangweni, Sihhoye on Friday.
The event was graced by the Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza and the different sponsors and partners of the competition.
Nyamane mentioned that the different sponsors and partners of the competition were Standard Bank, Times of Eswatini, ESWADE, Ubombo Sugar, Eswatini Railways, Liberty Life, RES Corporation, Nedbank, Swaziland Agricultural Supplies, EswatiniBank, Eswatini Building Society, Brisan Pumps, FINCORP and ESRIC.
“We are especially humbled that at the height of COVID-19 one of our partners, Standard Bank, made a long-term undertaking to the smallholder growers, by becoming the first standing category sponsor for the competition, hence the introduction of the Most Consistent Grower Category,” he said.
He said they would ensure that the sponsorship would be of direct benefit to the smallholder growers.
He stated that after a year’s break due to COVID-19, they were happy to be finally back and able to converge in celebration of the hard work invested by smallholder sugarcane growers.
“As you may be aware, smallholder growers form an integral part of the sugar industry, contributing significantly to the overall sugarcane and subsequent sugar production in the country. We therefore take them very seriously as an association, and are committed to their upliftment and continuous growth, hence such an initiative as this competition,” he said.
He mentioned that the past year had not been without adverse effects to the sugar industry as a whole, the smallholder growers were unexempted as COVID-19 took its toll, coupled with natural disasters of varying proportions as a result of erratic weather conditions.
“This saw sugarcane growers suffer immense losses and the industry experiencing a significant 8.55 per cent reduction in sugarcane produced, and 10.3 per cent in the total sugar tonnage produced. This inevitably impacted the overall sales of sugar by 10.4 per cent and revenue generated by up to 5.6 per cent,” he explained.
He stated that these was unfortunately the downsides of an agricultural business and that they however believe the industry in its resilience will bounce back from this, through the continued efforts of all players
“The world over is faced with economic challenges of monstrous proportions. The hikes in fuel prices and increases in prices of inputs have had a ripple effect to the value chain across all businesses.
It is therefore humbling to witness our sponsors and partners remain committed to the cause of advancing the smallholder growers. It is also encouraging to see these very growers remaining resilient in business – which is assurance of a future for the sugar industry,” he said.
Minister Mabuza said when the competition started in 1994, only 13 sugarcane growers participated and this year a total of 442 smallholder sugarcane growers (SSGS) participated, of which 167 are on Swazi Nation Land (SNL), and the rest are on Title Deed Land (TDL).
“The main purpose of this event is to recognise and award best performing smallholder sugarcane growers as a way of encouraging high sugarcane productivity, sound governance and efficiencies amongst growers in the sector, for sustainability of this industry,” he said.
He also encouraged all growers to follow the recommended good production practices and environmental management guidelines, as well as good corporate governance for a sustainable sugarcane industry.
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