I have learnt from my mistakes and want to do more for the sugar industry - Rabuka

SODELPA Leader Sitiveni Rabuka has today said that he has learnt a lot on how the sugar industry went into a downward spiral and SODELPA now wants to assist those in the industry.

Rabuka has released a statement saying that SODELPA is confident that the sugar industry has a bright future, if a tripartite approach is applied, where the Government, sugarcane farmers and the Fiji Sugar Corporation work together to return the industry to a sustainable and profitable basis.

He says that a SODELPA Government will encourage the renewal of cane leases, and encourage more iTaukei to become cane growers.

Fijivillage questioned Rabuka on why he has come up with these election promises on building a new Penang Mill and providing assistance to the sugar industry as nothing much could be done to find a solution to expiring ALTA land leases when he was Prime Minister back in 1997 and 1998.

Many farmers were told to leave the cane farms as the land leases had expired.

Rabuka says he is serious to make a positive change after learning from his mistakes.

Cane and sugar production has continued to slide downwards over the past 20 years.

Fijivillage has analyzed the statistics and it is clear that expiring cane land leases, non‑renewal of leases, the drastic reduction in the amount of cane farm land and the huge reduction in the number of cane farmers have contributed to the drastic reduction in cane and sugar production.

Fiji now has 11,653 active growers compared to more than 21,000 cane farmers in 1997 before the cane farming leases started expiring.

Back in 1997, 4 million tonnes of sugar cane was produced.

In 2017, the aim is to have 2 million tonnes of cane.

Back in 1997, 70,622 hectares of land in Fiji was under cane crop.

Now we have about 40,000 hectares of land under cane crop.

In an interview in 1998, Sitiveni Rabuka who was Prime Minister at the time admitted that resolving the Agricultural Leased and Tenants Act land issue before the 1999 general election could adversely affect his government's re‑election chances.

Rabuka said that the land issue was best left until after the general elections.

We asked Rabuka whether his learning experience and goal to be re-elected came at a big cost to the farmers who were told to leave the farms.

Rabuka says people have now seen what has happened after the cane farmers left the farmers.

Rabuka says they will look at modern machinery and bigger farms to increase cane and sugar production.