The UDP's First deputy leader spoke on a topic near and dear to him - the plight of the sugarcane farmers of the north. He explained that while the prediction for the 2024/2025 sugarcane crop was over a million tons, the final delivery was about 870,000. This decrease is due to Fusarium infecting the fields. So, if that's what happened last year - he predicts the next sugar crop will be even worse.
Today he called on the government to do more for them and the industry.
Hugo Patt, Deputy Leader, UDP
"What we're asking from this administration, we now have a sugarcane crop that will start late but this is not because the farmers of the millers are not ready but simply because production has been affected by the fusarium fungus and secondly we're asking the administration to make sure that whatever monies are being made available, that these are being made available at the time that the sugarcane requires the investment. We do not want at this point in time to have so many millions invested and the benefit actually is felt by contractors instead of the farmers. And so at this point in time, my plea and the plea of the United Democratic Party is for the government to take a comprehensive approach to this situation that the farmers are facing. A piecemeal approach will not benefit anybody but it requires for the government to have a serious look at what is going on in this industry."
