Rain a concern for cane harvest

The persistent showers?this island has been experiencing in recent weeks could create serious challenges for this year’s sugar cane harvest.
Chairman of the Barbados Sugar Industries Limited, Dr Attlee Brathwaite, said yesterday that while BSIL was looking to a mid-February start to the harvest, much would depend on the rains.
“We are hoping to get some good weather to at least facilitate the start,” he said.
“You know we’ve been constantly getting showers. It is a bit difficult to get into fields and harvest under very wet conditions, with mechanical equipment especially, because [it’s] heavy equipment.
“It creates a difficulty in terms of picking up a lot of extraneous matter.
“Certainly, we wouldn’t want to put a lot of extraneous matter in the factories at this stage, because it affects the quality of the sugar,” he said, adding that the adverse soil compression from the equipment could also affect the regrowth of canes.
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