Canefarmers Want More Support to Diversify

On Monday, we shared how the recent downpours have thrown a wrench in the works for delivering quality sugarcane to the Tower Hill Factory. The fields are waterlogged, and the roads are a muddy mess, making them nearly impossible to navigate. The relentless rain has also stalled road repairs, leaving cane farmers no choice but to harvest immature cane, which unfortunately yields very little. However, Alfredo Ortega, Chairman of the Committee of Management for the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, believes that with the right support, diversifying and planting different types of cane could help tackle the issues of flooding and disease.

 

Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A.

“Looking into variety, and that is something that we feel that SIRDI being the arm, needs to look upon varieties. I think that this is something that they really need to take into account on which we know that they have been working on it, but it needs much more to be done in regard to getting new varieties, but varieties that will really give us that return and yield that we need. The B79 is a predominant variety because that is a variety that shows that it can give good yields in both low and highlands.  If we get a pest infestation on that variety, then we are really going to lose because as you hear right now, the Fusarium problem that we are facing, we are experiencing it now, that the farmers are delivering, we see the quality of cane, we are seeing the TCTS that is coming out is very low, compared to other years. This year is really challenging for us as farmers because the Fusarium not only attack one variety, but it’s attacking all canes on a whole. And we are seeing the problem that we are facing so farmers themselves have been trying to plant other varieties that are to harvest on the very early part of the season.”