VENTURES AFRCIA – New technology promises to double South African sugar cane farmers’ income and output; as one of a series of potential improvements in the sugar-producing KwaZulu-Natal province.

Leading agri-business company, Syngenta wants to introduce its new crop-planting technology to South African sugar-cane farms, chief operating officer John Atkin told BDLive.  The technology, called Plene, has been used in the Brazilian sugar-cane industry to much avail driving the country’s sugar industry to become one of the biggest producers in the world.

While traditional sugar-cane planting practice sees farmers manually plant segments of cane 30-40 centimetres in length, requiring labour-intensive care and causing rapid field degradation and decrease in yield, the Plene technology sees 4 cm sections of cane coated in a proprietary crop protecting seed care and allows for the use of light planting equipment.  Thus the new technology not only improves crop yields, but allows for cost-effective mechanisation of farming practices.

In announcing Syngenta’s intent to bring Plene technology to South Africa, Atkin also explained the numeric benefits of the innovation; with Syngenta research demonstrating a 15 percent saving in production costs per hectare and a 5 to 15 tonne increase in yield per hectare where Plene techniques are used.

This latest announcement comes in the wake of a long line of measures initiated by the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal.  In 2010, the provincial government entered into a partnership with South African agri-business leader Tongaat Hulett in a project known as Operation Vuselela.  The initiative seeks to develop opportunities for sugar cane producers in the province – with a particular view to assisting those producers who received land under South African government land reform provisions aimed at increasing black ownership of farming land.

Since the beginnings of Operation Vuselela, the KwaZulu-Natal government has set aside 185 million South African rand ($22.4 million) to fund the project; with funds going towards technical assistance and infrastructure development provided by Tongaat Hulett.  The partnership also provides training opportunities for farmers in the province.  Particular focus is paid to farming co-operatives, and SME farming operations.

South African Sugar Association chairman Bongani Linda recently disclosed statistics that point to the particular success of assisted sugar-cane projects in the KwaZulu-Natal region, such as Operation Vuselela.  The provincial sugar-cane industry has successfully overseen the transfer of 21 per cent of sugar producing land to black ownership; well on the way to meeting the government’s 30 per cent goal to be achieved by 2014.  This figure is to be compared to the 1994 statistic when only 5 per cent of land was under black ownership.

With such promising credentials, the KwaZulu model has been earmarked as an example to other sugar-cane producing provinces in South Africa.  However, should the Syngenta technology also be implemented in the region, Operation Vuselela could follow in the footsteps of the Brazilian sugar-cane industry, rocketing into the global supply market.