And for farmers, exogenous factors like the weather and pests mean they often take a loss when their crops are destroyed.
Debt is a constant reality for farmers struggling to recover and pay for preparing the ground for the next crop. Minister Martinez told us what GOB is to help farmers get out of debt.
Osmond Martinez, Minister of State for Foreign Trade
"So the farmers are highly in debt so there is very limited to no cash flow whereby they can continue to invest into the industry. The second point is replanting, while 40% of the industry will enjoy that replanting under this program we also have issues that we have 60% that we will need to continue to facilitate through a loan system to the farmers whereby they can continue to do replanting then we have issues with drainage because when there is a lot of rain then we have drought in terms of flooding and so while there is flooding, while the areas where the cane is flooded the you realize that the roots they come all the way on the top and that itself takes away from the full productivity of the plant and then. So we have drainage we have irrigation issues as well so at least this year, last year and this year does not seem like it will have prolonged drought but definitely we have to prepare for the future in having proper irrigation system that will help us during that time."
