Sugar cane growers have been urged to regularise all their farming machinery other­wise will miss out on compensa­tion if involved in a farm work-re­lated accident under the Accident Compensation Commission Fiji (ACCF).

Sugarcane Growers Council chief executive officer Vimal Dutt said this during the signing of memo­randum of understanding (MOU) with ACCF in Lautoka on Friday.

Mr Dutt thanked ACCF for the collaboration to strengthen their relationship with authorities and the best interest of the growers.

“The objective is to reach all growers in terms of the services that are provided by ACCF, and for us going into this arrangement we want to ensure that all farming machinery is regularised,” he said.

He said their office would fa­cilitate and coordinate with the ACCF team in creating awareness programmes and especially lodge­ment of claims on behalf of the growers’ families.

“We realised that tractors, espe­cially if not registered with au­thorities, what happens if it cause accidents. We will lose the compen­sation. We know that compensa­tion is quite significant in the case of the loss of families.”

Mr Dutt recounted a tractor mis­hap at Malamala outside Nadi years ago where a farmer was crushed to death by an unregis­tered tractor. The man was work­ing underneath the tractor and thus missed out on the compensa­tion, he said.

ACCF chief executive officer Parveez Akbar said the MOU paved the way for the growers and their families’ welfare associated with the sugar industry including those in rural communities.

He added that since 2018 ACCF had paid more than $53 million compensation.

A farmer, Parveen Naicker, 56, of Lovu, in Lautoka said he welcomed the news.

“It is good for us farmers to be part of this scheme. The onus is on farmers to standardise our trac­tors and machines to be eligible,” he said.

“Mostly farmers are men and if something happens to them then their next of kin should be looked after well.”

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