Farmers burning with rage - Record canefield fires may force some to call it quits

Two heavily laden cane tractors in Frome, Westmoreland
WESTERN BUREAU:

Many stakeholders on Westmoreland's sugar cane belt are expressing fear that the industry could collapse within a matter of months, leaving thousands displaced, because of a record number of cane fields being burnt to the ground.

Residents said since last December, arsonists have targeted Frome, the island's largest sugar cane community, burning cane fields with impunity.

Reports from the Westmoreland Fire Department are that in December last year, there were 48 cane fires, compared to seven during the corresponding month in 2007. Last month, there were 65 cane fires, compared to just 14 in January last year.

When The Gleaner visited Frome on Wednesday, one haulage contractor, Dave Golaub, said he had never seen so many simultaneous cane fires in his lifetime. He said the fires were having a devastating effect, especially on small farmers who were dependent on manual labour for reaping. Burnt cane is deemed substandard or worthless if not delivered to the sugar factory within three days.

It goin' collapse
"If things continue like this, we naw guh have nuh industry lef'. A collapse it goin' collapse," said Golaub.

"It goin tek more maintenance so di industry nuh mus' run right down to the ground. Cane just a burn down and farmers naw mek nuh money fi maintain back dem field.

Golaub argued that arson would have a domino effect on other subsectors of the industry. He said a shortage of cutters also hamstrung the recovering of cane, leaving farmers to the ransom of reapers who could drive up prices.

Police at Frome Police Station told The Gleaner that no formal reports of arson had been made, nor has anyone been arrested in relation to the fires. The police, however, acknowledged they were aware of the arson claims.

Several attempts to reach the Frome Sugar factory for a comment were unsuccessful as the management team was said to be locked in a meeting.

One Frome-based tractor operator told The Gleaner that the burning of the cane had resulted in cane-cutters being underpaid because of a resulting "bomb rush". He said the harvest season, commonly called the 'crop', usually lasts from January to June, but the spate of canefield fires could cut it to less than three months.

Pay cut
"When dem burn down di cane, a whole lot of new cane-cutters come in, contractors and everybody, so because a di bomb rush and di whole heap a competition, dem haffi work fi all half of what dem used to get," he said.

"Without the crop, most people deh a dem yard. Who have pickney depend pon di crop; who sell out a cane piece depend pon di crop, and right now is like we naw survive off a di sugar again, because dem cause di crop fi shorten," he said.

Shortly after one o'clock last Wednesday, The Gleaner caught up with cane farmer Marvin Salabi in Townhead, Westmoreland, where one of his cane fields was on fire. One of his fire units was on spot conducting cooling-down operations.

Salabi, who controls four different farms covering more than 600 acres, said 15 acres of ratoons (cane sprouts) were destroyed.

"Somebody light it and then it spread all over," Salabi said. "It is a (significant) amount of loss. It is hard to estimate now. The field will grow back, but the plants are going to be very weak, so you have to put extra fertiliser, which will cost more.

Looking for fire
"I can't go to my bed until one or two o'clock at nights, because I have to be looking for fires, so that I can stop it if I see it, before it get out of control and to a stage where you can't reap it," Salabi continued. "I don't know, but I think this is something that is fully organised because you cannot catch the perpetrators."

Salabi said he and other farmers were considering withdrawing from the industry as the losses had become overwhelming. He, too, contended that the sugar industry in the area was on the brink of destruction.

"Some of us just going give up because right now I am thinking of going back into cattle," he said.

"If these fires continue and the farmers get fed up and come out it will be a big setback for the factory and everybody down here. Everybody going suffer not just the farmers, but the workers, vendors, schoolchildren everybody," Salabi warned.
SOURCE:jamaica-gleaner