Africa-Press – Mauritius. Government will always support and assist the small sugarcane planters as evidenced by the ongoing measures being elaborated and implemented by the relevant authorities.
This was the gist of the speech of the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, this afternoon, at the launching of support measures for sugarcane planters for Crop 2023, at Plaine des Papayes Multipurpose Complex.
The Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin; the Parliamentary Private Secretary, Mr Rajanah Dhaliah, and other personalities, also attended the ceremony.
According to Mr Bholah, sugar cane crops were cultivated under different conditions across the island namely weather, type of land, and as such, parameters for cultivation, fertilisation and irrigation should be adjusted accordingly.
Therefore, stressed the Minister, it was imperative for all relevant authorities to work together to seek the services of an expert with relevant knowledge, technical know-how and experience with a view to improving sugar cane crop yields by devising the appropriate techniques for the various regions.
For his part, Mr Maneesh Gobin appealed to small sugarcane planters not to abandon their land but to avail of all the schemes being put in place by the Government to support them like the advance fertiliser scheme or the ALMS-cane replanting scheme.
The Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security thus urged planters to call on the eight Farmers Service Agencies in Mauritius to learn about, and make use of, the latest measures being implemented to assist them in pursuing sugar cane cultivation.
Highlighting that sugar prices were on the rise, he invited small planters to group into cooperatives in order to access and benefit from the facilities that would increase productivity. According to the Minister, the COVID-19 pandemic had shown the importance of agriculture for food security.
On that score, he stressed the necessity to pursue farming and rearing of animals to attain food self-sufficiency as well as to continue the cultivation of sugar cane crop so as to obtain foreign direct investment in times of crises.
Support measures for sugarcane planters for Crop 2023 Among the support measures launched to assist planters are: The operationalisation of a second sugar cane harvester; The payment of 80% crop advance on the guaranteed price of sugar (Crop 2022) to planters producing up to 60 tons of sugar based on the ex-MSS price;
The enlistment of the services of SMEs contractors having the necessary equipment and expertise for de-rocking and land preparation works over a period of two years to provide timely land preparation services to sugar cane planters;
The increase of the fund allocation under the Advance Fertiliser Scheme from Rs 105 m to Rs 125 m to ensure that all planters with a cultivation of less than 100 ha are eligible for a supply of recommended fertiliser.
The maximum cost allowable under this scheme is Rs 1,310 per 25 kg bag of fertiliser compared to Rs 981 per 25 kg bag last year. The voucher system will be implemented as from Thursday 15 September 2022 in all Farmers Service Centres.
An increase of Rs 25 m in the budgetary allocation under the Cane Replanting Scheme, which aims at encouraging sugarcane planters to review their plantations after at least six harvests and replant abandoned cane lands. The grant per arpent now amounts to Rs 50,000 instead of Rs 35,000.
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