Last night, we told you about the decision from stakeholders in the Sugar Industry to temporarily pause all sugar cane deliveries for the 2020-2021 crop season, which started only 9 days ago. The difficult decision was taken because the industry is currently facing multiple problems, such as bad weather, terrible sugar roads, and a lack of efficient coordination of the deliveries.
But, the biggest challenge facing the farmers at this time has been their inability to provide the millers with enough cane to meet the factory's minimum requirement of 55 hundred tonnes per day. Because the deliveries have been so low, and there isn't a clear idea when these issues have will be resolved the season, all grinding operations have been put on pause.
As viewers are aware, awful weather conditions have been a consistent problem for the cane farmers. They, like other farmers countrywide, have had to battle with months of drought, and unseasonal rains which caused flood damage to their cane fields.
Caribbean Climate experts are of the considered opinion that the climate for countries in this region will become harsher and more extreme. So, to prepare for that, the sugar industry is looking toward a climate resilience program that is supposed to be launched by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, or 5Cs for short.
Here's what ASR's Mac McLachlan had to say on the topic:
Malcolm (Mac) McLachlan - V.P. International Relations, ASR Group
"This is a rain-fed crop. It's a crop that relies on the seasons, and increasingly, that's being interrupted both in the sense of weather - well, droughts, as we had 2 years ago, which had a devastating impact on the cane crop last year, and too much rain at the wrong times when you least need it. Most farmers would say, of course, you have to have rain when you're replanting, when you're doing these things. But, if the rain doesn't come then, but then comes in the middle of the crop, that's difficult. So, what are we doing about that? We are working at the moment with the 5C's, the Caribbean Climate Change Community people, and we have an initial agreement from the Green Climate Fund for a major project looking at responses to climate challenges in the sugar belt. Presently, that project is in its preparation stage, and monies have been allocated to that from the Green Climate Fund."
