Elected Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry says he is quite alarmed at the plight of cane farmers in the Western Division, who are being forced off their land on expiry of  agricultural leases.

Mr Chaudhry, just returned from an extensive tour of the Western cane belt areas, has also expressed fears about the future of the sugar industry should the Native Lands Trust Board persist with its current harsh attitude towards farmers.

He warned of a strangulation of the sugar industry if the situation is not arrested. It has come to a point where Indian farmers now want out of cane farming. They are sick of being pushed from pillar to post and of being treated as of no consequence, he said.

"NLTB's policies will choke the sugar industry to death. Terms that the board is offering to farmers are harsh and they offer no security of tenure. Farmers on the whole have been alienated by NLTB's attitude which is very hostile and arrogant.

"Even where landowners are willing to continue leasing their land, the NLTB has put a stop to it.  Some farmers have lost huge amounts paid in goodwill money to landowners for lease renewals only to find the NLTB would not
allow it."

Mr Chaudhry said NLTB's  uncompromising attitude is going to be just as detrimental to the interests of landowners. "It will deprive them of millions of dollars in lease money. As it is we are already seeing healthy cane farms resorting to bush land once they are vacated."

The Prime Minister travelled extensively to rural farming settlements in Rakiraki, Ba and Nadi, meeting with cane farmers and discussing their problems. He came across many instances of  home sites lying desolate after farmers were forced to vacate at the expiry of their leases.

"It is emotionally quite devastating to talk to families who have  lived on a piece of  land for generations, building their homes and dreams around it, to suddenly have to wrench themselves away and pull everything down.

"For many it has meant renting apart the very fabric of their home and community life,"  he said.

Social and financial impact on farmers have been just as devastating.

Hundreds of families have been reduced to destitute levels, with no source of income and no where to stay. If nothing is done to rehabilitate them, they will become a burden on the State, lining up at Social Welfare for destitute allowances.

The People's Coalition Government had allocated a rehabilitation grant of $28,000 per farmer to prevent such a disaster but this seems likely to be scrapped by the interim regime. Cheques handed out to evicted farmers so far under the scheme, were all processed by the People's Coalition.

Mr Chaudhry has warned of a humanitarian tragedy of immense proportions, should the rehabilitation grant not be reinstated as planned by the elected government.