Rain brings good tidings to growers

SUGARCANE growers in Lautoka are forecasting a good crop next year, thanks to rain across the area over the past few days.

Prominent Drasa farmer Mahendra Prasad said if the rain continued for a few more days, there would be a bumper crop come the 2018 season.

"Almost every farmer in Drasa is planting and this is only because of the rainfall we have received," he said.

"Farmers were just waiting for the right conditions and this rainfall came at exactly the right time."

While Sugar Cane Growers Council CEO Sundresh Chetty welcomed the initiative shown by farmers in planting cane, he said the onus was on them to ensure conditions were ideal for cultivation.

"As long as there is sufficient moisture in the soil to sustain the plants, farmers should go ahead and take advantage of the rain we are receiving in the west," he said.

"I would also like to remind growers that the cane planting window has been extended to December 15 and any cane planted to that date will be accepted in the 2018 season."

The Fiji Sugar Corporation was forced to revise its 2017 forecast from 2.1million tonnes to 1.8m and then further down to 1.7million tonnes.

However, growers representative organisations have forecast a total harvest of about 1.6m tonnes.

Sugarcane News



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November 20, 2017 at 09:43AM