The project of providing a harvester to small cane farmers is now a reality. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced this in the 2019/2020 budget. This harvester will cost 15 million rupees to produce in India. This will help 8,000 farmers who are grouped together in cooperatives. This initiative contributes in keeping sugarcane farming sustainable in Mauritius. This project will help these small farmers to thrive by providing facilities, aiding with land preparation and harvesting cane.
Ministers Maneesh Gobin and Sumilduth Bholah, as well as PPS Dahlia, were present at the cane fields of planter Invam Ramsamy at Friendship, for the inauguration of the harvester. The Mauritius Cane Industry Authority and the Mauritius Cooperative Agricultural Federation also collaborated on this initiative.
With agriculture becoming an industry that is seeing technological growth, harvesters have many added features and benefits. Therefore these features will be of great use to our small sugar cane farmers. A harvester can get more work done and also more efficiently. It consequently offers farmers a better yield at comparatively lower costs.
Advantages of using a harvester:
Increased yield
– Using the harvester eliminates grain loss during manual cutting of the crop, tying the crop for carrying, transporting the harvest and from incomplete threshing. A 5% to 10% increased yield is demonstrated by this method
Time savings in the field
– Combine harvesters can harvest one acre of land in one hour. The manual method would require 12 people, one full day to perform the same task.
Reduced net cost
– The combine harvesting can be priced to be lower than the cost of manual harvesting this outing into consideration the labour cost used in manual harvesting.
Source: mbcradio.tv
Accessed on October 2021
