By LITIA MATHEWSELL
With the crushing season only two weeks away, all cane growers are urged to submit their completed memorandum of gang agreement (MOGA) forms to their sector officers.
Sugar Cane Growers Council (acting) chief executive officer Sundresh Chetty said the memorandum forms have been distributed to the gangs.
They are being urged to hold their annual general meetings and finalise arrangements for cutters, lorries and tractors before handing in their completed forms so that other arrangements could be finalised by sector officers.
On gang amalgamation, Mr Chetty said: “With the gangs where we have consensus- a hundred percent agreement with the growers- those gangs are being merged but where there are disagreements, it will remain status quo, for this season”.
Upgrade works to cane access roads by various contractors are also ongoing, in a bid to ease the transportation of cane to the mills in Rakiraki, Ba, Lautoka and Labasa.
Mr Chetty said he understood that work has begun in most of the cane farming sectors and a second lot of local purchase orders would be issued soon.
The companies that are carrying out maintenance of cane access roads were awarded the contracts after registering their expression of interest with the Ministry for Sugar.
For the upgrading of cane access roads this season the Government has allocated $2 million for 38 cane growing sectors in the four mill areas.