Double Disaster: Floods Deepen Sugar Cane Crisis

As if battling a devastating fungal outbreak wasn’t enough, sugar cane farmers are now facing another major blow, flooding. Weeks of heavy rainfall have left cane fields waterlogged across the country, wiping out crops and compounding an already dire situation. This season has seen one of the lowest yields on record, with production down by nearly thirty percent and losses estimated at a staggering fifty-three million dollars. Chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, Alfredo Ortega, says the future of the industry is uncertain, but despite the setbacks, farmers are still out there, doing everything they can to keep it alive.

 

Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association

“But nevertheless, the see the issue and the situation farmers are facing right now on which the reduction of yields for this past crop was in the vicinity of forty to thirty percent. The price that we are seeing right now for the Sugar cane being delivered is very low. So even right now, if the farmers fight very hard to see how they can get the product to reduce the spread of the disease is very hard at this point in time. But we are trying our best to see how we can continue so that we can have some product for the upcoming crop. It’s a very difficult situation right now, and it’s not very easy for a farmer to change from one planting to another. Because as everything is driven by market and everything is driven right now by the economical standpoint where we are at this point in time. I believe that ninety-nine percent of our farmers are indebted to either one bank or an institution,  financial institution. So it’s very hard for us right now as farmers to say, okay, we’ll leave the sugar cane and. Another direction. So we’re trying our best to keep what we have and to see how best we can work with the organization or the government or whosoever can help us, assist us so that we can have product for the next upcoming crop.”