TEN?PER CENT of the thousands of sugar canes collected so far at Andrews and Port Vale factories have been burnt and it has become a cause for concern to both the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) and the Barbados Fire Service.
John Goodman, BAMC’s technical manager of factories, told the DAILY?NATION the fires would affect the quality of some of the canes collected, while Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall noted that the 57 cane fires this quarter were way more than the 42 recorded in the first three months of 2012.
“Ten per cent burnt for the crop is very high. Last year, we were about three or four per cent at the most, so it is much higher than usual.
“It is affecting the harvesting because you are not going after the more mature canes in a sequence.
“Instead of one planning what you are going to harvest and how you should harvest it, you are moving the harvesters all day, running around behind fires, so it is really not good for planning and getting the best canes at the best time,”?Goodman said.
