Following the non-renewal of some cane farm leases, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says farmers should be given an opportunity to live on the land and give the country an opportunity to increase its cane production.
While speaking during the launch of the National Skills Gap Assessment Survey, Rabuka says the government is trying to give an opportunity to everyone to grow.
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The Prime Minister says some farmers who lost their sugar cane leases 30 years ago were resettled onto subdivided land purchased by government, where they now earn daily income selling food instead of waiting months for sugar cane payments.
He says Fiji should think collectively about such long-term solutions.
Minister for Agriculture Tomasi Tunabuna has confirmed that across the sugar-producing regions, there are 2,362 leases that have been dealt with and currently, 56 percent of these leases, amounting to 1,128 individual holdings, have been renewed.
