THE BARBADOS AGRICULTURAL Society is concerned about reports that two plantations are planning to abandon their more than 230 acres of ripe sugar cane because reaping would be too expensive.
CEO of the society, James Paul, complained today that the move would undermine the ability of Barbados to continue in sugar production and that it held negative implications for the island’s plans to establish a multimillion dollar, multi-purpose sugar factory.
The owners of Portland and The Rock plantations in St Peter say it’s too expensive to reap their canes so they are going to leave them in the field.
Paul said his agency would have to take “an aggressive approach” to the matter and hold discussions with these and other large plantations across the island on what are the major problems they face and the likely solutions.
According to Paul, every effort had to be made to keep agricultural lands in production. At the same time, he complained that much of those lands had ended up as residential areas over the years. (TY)
