The Fiji Cane Growers Association says the future of the sugar industry is in trouble if it is unable to attract young people back to cane farming.
A villager in the cane fields near Lautoka, Fiji Photo: RNZI / Sally Round
The General Secretary for the Association, Bala Dass, says most of Fiji's 12-thousand sugar cane farmers are over 50 years old.
Mr Dass says if young people are to be attracted back land leases need to be lengthened, the payment system needs to change, and tools like cutters and fertiliser need to be subsidised.
"Definitely the sugar industry is in trouble because when this generations time goes away in about five or ten years time and they become old, then what will happen is that there will be nobody to work in the farm. There is lots of land left over here which is being unused."
Bala Dass says the younger generation has moved away from the cane industry so they can get paid weekly in white collar jobs.