B.S.I Official Agrees that Diversification of Cane Types is Important

Cane farmers are facing significant financial losses. When the mill must shut down due to a lack of cane to process, it hits the factory hard too. Mac McLachlan, the General Manager of the A.S.R/B.S.I. sugar mill, agrees that diversifying with different types of sugarcane could help solve some of the issues farmers are currently grappling with, like low yields and diseases. He points out that in other countries, cane farmers are already investing in various replanting strategies to tackle these challenges.

 

Mac McLachlan, General Manager, A.S.R/B.S.I.

“Normally, a sugar industry would have a whole range of different varieties. Some of them would mature earlier, some of them would mature later, so that you end up having a higher amount of sugar across the whole range of the crop, but here it’s been because of the lack of serious replanting in cane fields. We’re predominantly one variety, and so that won’t actually reach full maturity for some time now. But you see if we all wait until the time is optimal to begin the crop, then as we’ve learned in recent years, later on in June, July, then we get into real problems and then that farmers are left without being able to deliver cane, which is even the worst situation.”