The first ever mechanical sugar cane harvester has arrived in Rakiraki, ahead of this year’s sugar cane crushing season.
Purchased from India, the harvester is expected to minimize costs for farmers, when it comes to hiring laborer’s to cut cane.
Costing 3 hundred and 65 thousand dollars, this mechanical harvester will be the first ever to be used in Rakiraki.
It was bought by the Rarawai Penang Cane Producers Association with funding made available from the Fiji Development Bank.
About 70 farmers in the Nanuku and Malau area have signed up to use this machine to harvest their crop this year.
“It is a great achievement through RPCP and I think most of the farmers in the Nanuku and the Malau sector will benefit from this by harvesting the cane for themselves, I don’t think any cutters will be needed in these areas,” said Kalyan Chand from the Rarawai Penang Cane Producers Association.
Farmers are excited at the prospect that will save about $7 per tonne of cane if they use this mechanical harvester.
For some, this is a dream come true having spent their whole life using cane-cutters for harvesting.
“After 1987 we tried to bring one in but the unloading mechanism here at the Penang mill wasn’t suitable for the big dumper trucks that are used in this mechanical harvesting. We had a dream to get one machine and here it is.” said Ganga Naidu a farmer from Nanuku.
This mechanical harvester will cut about 50 tonnes of cane per hour and at least 15 large dumper trucks will be needed to collect and take the cane to Rarawai mill.
The only downside for now is that hundreds of cane cutters – who are hard to get – will now be out of a job.
“We had been in a shortage of labor since most of our children are working elsewhere so I am sure this harvester will be of help for these farmers.”
Income derived from the operations of this harvester will be used to pay off the FDB loan.