Favourable rainfall and improved yields have led experts to predict that the 2021 sugar harvest will produce more than it did last year.
With the season set to commence on March 1, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir told members of the media during a press conference at Wakefield, St John this morning, that it has been projected that 107 000 tonnes of sugar cane yields would be produced this year, 17 more than the 90 000 tonnes reaped in 2020.
“We have produced 7 200 tones of sugar and we are deliberately reducing that now to 5 200 to satisfy the domestic consumption and then for export to the United States,” Weir said.
“But then we also produce 500 000 tonnes of molasses and we are increasing that now to 13 000 tonnes because we do recognize that when we produce more molasses, we are able to help the rum industry so that our distilleries then can produce more rum for export and we benefit from the earnings of foreign exchange in that regard.
“So those are the plans for this year in terms of the sugar harvest and we will be monitoring carefully. I personally think that with the good rainfall that we had we should be able to even surpass our target and we probably may get to 110 000 tonnes for production. So therefore these are good times,” Weir said.
Weir also reported that due to favourable rainfall, yields are expected to be 17.84 per acre in 2021 compared to 12.14 in 2020.
Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agriculture Management Company (BAMC) Orlanda Atherley, said due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, BAMC has improved its surveillance at its factory and has recently brought on two compliance officers to make sure staff maintain social distancing and stay within their area of work.
Atherley also announced that 106 factory workers have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We have put the systems in place in relation to the haulers, in addition to the farms, in relation to people coming on the property. We are confident that if there are any challenges that we have that we can manage it, making sure that if we have somebody in a particular area that is sick that we can always pull them out and continue with the crop as necessary,” Atherley said.
Atherley said BAMC has been sitting at the round table with trade unions to engage in negotiations, including keeping staff safe in the current environment.
Deputy Operations Manager, Portville Sugar Factory, Marlon Munroe said grinding operations will commence at the end of March and be completed by mid-June 2021. Munroe said that it is expected that steam trials slated to be held on Monday would be a successful undertaking.
Authorities have also reported that unlike last year, the factory would have sufficient fuel and bagasse due to the harvesting of river tamarind.
“We will not have any of the issues we had last year in terms of running out of fuel because we put systems in place to ensure that we can have a very smooth crop,” Atherley said.
BAMC has also started to plant cuscus grass around hedgerows of canefields to reduce water running off from canefields into the streets to keep in the soil in the ground.
Meanwhile, Weir said the Wakefield project, dubbed the centre for agriculture excellence has 94 acres of hot water treated sugar cane, which means that farmers would be able to improve their yields.
“I have chosen to come here because I want you to see first-hand what can be done if we dedicate and commit to achieving good agriculture practices and this centre of excellence here is going to be the main driver for agriculture activity around Barbados.
“We have created a nursery here for cuscus grass as well so that when you look across this entire landscape what you can see is agriculture at its best. We have two dams on this plantation as well and overall those two ponds are going to give us 500 000 gallons of water for this area.
“That is a good example of starting our water harvesting and between those two ponds, we are almost 90 percent complete so going in the dry season we would be able to have those ready and when the rains come back we would have water stored here at Wakefield for farming,” Weir said.
Director of the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL) Jason Marshall said despite significant challenges in the past, BAMC has committed to improving its relationship with private farmers, particularly in the area of payment and making steps to better the industry.
Based on an initial estimate, private farmers are expected to deliver 70 000 tonnes, 10 000 more than last year.
“The private farmers are taking a more scientific approach to the husbandry and production of cane so we are very happy and positive going forward,” Marshall said. (AH)
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