IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ifma13/345727.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

NPR - Sugarcane At Umfolozi, South Africa: Contributing To The Sustainability Of An Environmentally And Socially Sensitive Area

Author

Listed:
  • Searle, Alex

Abstract

Sugarcane has been grown on the Umfolozi Flats in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa since 1911 and now occupies an area of approximately 9 000 ha between the Umfolozi and the Msunduzi rivers. The sugar production area is bounded by a large local population and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage site. This paper considers the value of sustainable sugarcane farming in an environmentally sensitive area with a large rural population. The Umfolozi Flats are eminently suited to sugarcane production due to its deep fertile soils, high heat units and favourable annual rainfall. With a labour intensive milling operation and manual planting and harvesting, job creation is considerable, providing direct employment for 6 000 people and in this way the sugar industry contributes significantly to the local economy. The location of the sugar mill in the midst of the production area, coupled with the utilization of a narrow gauge railway results in a highly efficient transport system with a minimal carbon footprint. Current sugarcane industry research focuses on improving efficiencies in the use of chemical inputs, including fertilisers and herbicides, thereby minimising contamination of the environment. A sustainable farming tool, the Sugarcane Sustainable Farm Management System (SUSFARMS®), which aims to guide growers on critical production, environmental sustainability and social issues is currently being introduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Searle, Alex, 2013. "NPR - Sugarcane At Umfolozi, South Africa: Contributing To The Sustainability Of An Environmentally And Socially Sensitive Area," 19th Congress, Warsaw, Poland, 2013 345727, International Farm Management Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:ifma13:345727
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.345727
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/345727/files/13_NPR_Searle_P323-331v2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.345727?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ifma13:345727. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifmaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.