But in the case of the Fusarium fungus, Mai explained his theory of why it's been affecting the fields this crop season, despite the pathogen itself being ever present. He also gave a reason for why the fields in the west that Santander uses aren't being affected.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"The experts believe climate change and excess high temperatures are harming the soil. One, we've burned sugar cane fields for 50 years, twice a year, we burn the fields to cut the cane and after we've cut the cane and harvested it, we burned the trash so we are destroying the soil, the microbes. So we've burnt out the good microbes in the soil and the bad ones stayed like in many cases, the bad prevails."
Reporter:
"So you believe that in the case of Santander, because they're just starting out…"
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Absolutely, their soil is still in tact, their practices are a lot different from ours in the north, they've learnt, they harvest with machines so they do one burning."
"This year, this crop that just finished, we lost 500 cane farmers, 500 cane farmers did not deliver sugar cane last year so they didn't appear on the list this year, so that's 500 gone."
