Cane harvesting delayed for third time

FOR the third time within a week, inclement weather has delayed the start of this year’s sugar cane crop harvest, with Sugar Industry Team (SIT) chief operating officer Wayne Inniss, saying the crop would now tentatively start next Monday. Inniss said the start of the crop would be determined by weather and cane farmers’ access to the fields to harvest canes. Last week, heavy rains which led to flooding in Caroni and landslides along the North Coast, prevented farmers from accessing the canes because of soggy water-logged plantations. The sugar cane season was originally slated to start on January 5, but was pushed back to January 10, due to the inclement weather. Inniss said with a limited dry season, any further delays in harvesting the canes may result in the crop being pushed into the wet season.

“Farmers said they would risk damage to their fields and equipment if they were to start harvesting in such unfavourable conditions and we are mindful of this,” Inniss said. For how long the Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited (SMCL) is prepared to extend the crop opening, Inniss said, would depend on weather conditions, but he hastened to add, it (the delay) could not be indefinite. “It is better to start harvesting in the wet season and go into the dry season where you know conditions will improve,” Inniss advised, “than having to extend the crop into the wet season.” Farmers would ultimately determine the start of the crop, Inniss told Newsday. SIT was mandated by Government to oversee harvesting and delivery of farmers’ canes to SMCL’s Usine Ste Madeleine sugar factory.

Meanwhile, SMCL acting CEO Andre Gayadeen, said the factory was fully operational and prepared to begin receiving canes for processing. Gayadeen expressed sympathy with the plight faced by farmers whose success for a profitable crop, was heavily dependent on their ability to harvest the canes. Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers’ Association (TICFA) public relations officer Lallan Rajaram, said farmers were willing to begin the crop but would literally be “spinning top in mud” given the inaccessibility to the fields. “A lot of fields are still under water and some traces will not take ‘grading’ because there is only mud,” Rajaram said. Most access roads into cane fields, the TICFA spokesman reminded, were in disrepair since Caroni (1975) Ltd was shut down.