Africa-Press – Mauritius. A series of measures to support sugarcane planters for Crop 2024 was launched, yesterday, at the Beau Champ Farmers’ Service Centre (FSC), in the presence of the Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Teeruthraj Hurdoyal.
The Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah; the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Mohammud Zahid Nazurally; the Chief Executive Officer of the Mauritius Cane Industry Authority, Mr Satish Purmessur; and other personalities were present on the occasion.
In his keynote address, Minister Hurdoyal highlighted that the Government came up with all these measures in a bid to give a new dynamism to the sugarcane sector and promote self-sufficiency.
He outlined some of the measures aiming to address the financial difficulties faced by vulnerable sugarcane planters, including: payment of 80% crop advance on the guaranteed price of sugar; Advance Fertiliser Scheme for Crop 2024; hiring and acquisition of new machines; and Cane Replanting Revolving Fund, among others.
Mr Hurdoyal further stressed that as Minister of Agro-Industry, he was determined to continue efforts to relieve sugarcane planters from the numerous challenges they face as well as promote food security in the country.
“It is therefore important to have statistics as regards the number and age of sugarcane planters in order to know whether the sector has gone through an ageing population in order to determine if the sugar industry has a viable future or not,” he added.
In addition, the Minister underlined the collaboration between the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security and the Ministry of Industrial Development, SMEs, and Cooperatives as regards the implementation of measures.
“Without this collaboration, several initiatives such as the land preparation works by SME contractors in order to provide timely land preparation services to sugarcane planters would not have been possible,” he stated.
According to the Minister, the COVID-19 pandemic had shown the importance of agriculture for food security and stressed the necessity to pursue farming and rearing of animals to attain food self-sufficiency and reduce the consequential impacts on the national food security level.
He thus appealed to the population to restart having a backyard garden and to take advantage of the measures introduced by the Government to encourage local production. Minister Hurdoyal also urged the planters to shift to biofertilizers such as molasses instead of using chemical fertilisers.
“Moreover, with the operationalisation of the National Biomass Framework, all planters will benefit from the remuneration for bagasse at the price of Rs 3,300 per tonne of sugar,” he noted.
“The sugar industry,” he said, “is doing well and the State is continuing to provide its support to planters.
” He thereby urged more planters to engage in sugarcane cultivation as the price of sugar was expected to continue to increase on the international market.
For his part, Minister Bholah highlighted that the Government was sensitive to the plight of sugarcane planters and would always support and assist small sugarcane planters as evidenced by the ongoing measures elaborated and implemented by relevant authorities. The Minister stressed that it was essential for all authorities to work together and devise appropriate techniques to sustain the sugarcane sector.
“In the wake of the various challenges that the world is facing both at national and international levels, the Government has made it a priority to implement measures so that sugarcane planters continue to cultivate their lands and not abandon them,” he reassured.
The Minister thus urged planters to learn about and make use of these latest measures being implemented to assist them in pursuing sugar cane cultivation, such as the Advance Fertiliser Scheme for Crop; the Nursery Establishment Scheme; and the Seedcane Subsidy Scheme.
As for Mr Purmessur, he spoke of the MCIA’s intent to assist planters through the implementation of several measures to promote the development of the cane sector, thus creating an enabling environment with innovative and efficient services and technology transfer to meet current and future challenges.
Measures he elaborated on included: the increase in the minimum guaranteed price from Rs 25,000 to Rs 27,500 per tonne of sugar; the provision of new mechanised equipment, namely two sugarcane harvesters and two tractors by the MCIA and; the setting up of a financial scheme with a provision of Rs 500 million for financial year 2023-2024 so as to provide loans for renewal of cane plantations at a concessionary interest rate of 2% per annum.
For More News And Analysis About Mauritius Follow Africa-Press
