As the sugar sector and canegrowers continue to grapple with major headwinds, one business solutions organisation is punting the use of bana grass to soften the blows that the sugar industry has suffered.
Tomas Persson, executive director of Green Power Solutions (GPS), told Business Times that the sector and its farmers needed a modern solution to their challenges, as the sector had been unable to adapt to changes.
“Sugar cane was a good idea 100 years ago, but now almost everyone has stopped using sugar,” he said. “There is no future for sugar, but for protein. There is a common understanding that the need for protein is set to double by 2030.
“Bana grass was developed in this country back in the 1950s. But it seems like it was forgotten. You can find it in Australia and Hawaii, but you hardly find it in South Africa. The sugar industry is collapsing in places like Australia, Malawi and Mauritius because no-one is buying sugar.”
The sugar sector is hurting from cheap imports. Tongaat Hulett is staring at liquidation, with key sugar sector organisations appealing to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court this week to postpone liquidation proceedings in order to hear their inputs.
Bana grass is a tropical, high-yielding grass that was developed in South Africa in 1958 for feeding livestock. It is known for its robust and fast growth.
The ambition is now to offer Tongaat Hulett farmers bana grass as an alternative to cane. It’s a man-made hybrid grass that can be propagated only via cuttings. So we have bestowed nurseries, including three in Zambia recently.
— Tomas Persson, GPS Solution executive director
Persson said bana grass could help South African sugar cane farmers make a living by producing a protein-rich crop which is also used for the production of BioChar, a soil improver. BioChar halves the amount of fertiliser needed while doubling the harvest. Small-scale farmers can sell bana grass for cow feed, which was the original idea.
“You farm it the same way as sugar cane but you don’t give it commercial fertiliser, so it’s much cheaper. You harvest it in the same way with the same equipment and use the same crushing system.
“It is turned into protein, BioChar and fertiliser.”
Persson said German companies were interested in investing, but prospective investors needed the buy-in of farmers.
“It’s not the solution for everything, but it can help, because the Tongaat Hulett situation is not looking good.”
Persson said bana grass can yield up to $200 (R3,300) in carbon credits, which would cover the cost of carbonising the BioChar.
“The ambition is now to offer Tongaat Hulett farmers bana grass as an alternative to cane,” he said. “It’s a man-made hybrid grass that can be propagated only via cuttings. So we have bestowed nurseries, including three in Zambia recently.”
The minister of trade, industry & competition, Parks Tau, last month initiated an amendment to the constitution of the South African Sugar Association to empower it to determine the local market’s sugar requirements, carry-on stocks and annual export quantities.
Dr Marilyn Govender, head of diversification at the South African Farmers’ Development Association, said sugar cane was one of the most resilient, forgiving and strong crops. Sugar cane is also regulated, unlike other deregulated crops.
“Under the sugar cane value chain master plan, a crop diversification study was undertaken by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy, and it found that there was no alternative crop that could replace the areas planted with sugar cane in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga,” she said.
Govender said small-scale farmers were foundational to the South African sugar cane industry, and they should be supported, developed and protected.
“They cannot be switched from sugar cane to another crop without capital, support and guaranteed markets,” she said. “Some large-scale commercial farmers may have tested out other crops, such as macadamia [nuts] but they have the capital to do so and can take such risks. Small-scale farmers can be completely wiped out by such crop diversification.”
She said if there were opportunities for supplementing small-scale sugar cane farmers with additional revenue streams from complementary crops, that could be considered if production capital was available along with support and a guaranteed market offtake.
The key, she said, was to complement, not remove small-scale farmers from sugar cane production.
Organisations representing the sugar sector across the value chain declined to comment on bana grass.
In the meantime, canegrowers have introduced solutions to challenges such as the sugar tax — for instance, the introduction of an energy drink made from sugar cane which has no added processed sugar.
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