Now that the sugar season has started - the industry has to deal head on with the issue of wild fusarium - a fungus affecting sugar cane plantations - whose spread will significantly affect overall cane output in the north - along with lower quality cane.
According to BSI ASR Corozal has the most affected areas, which means that Orange Walk needs to start putting in stricter measures, like sanitizing equipment. Their Cane Farmer Relations Manager, Olivia Carballo gave us more details on the disease and how exactly it affects the crops.
Oliva Carballo, Cane Farmer Relations Manager, ASR BSI
"SIRDI estimates about 40k acres has been affected with some degree the most severe areas are about 10k acres that are really severe in the way that we would want to recommend that those be replanted and not brought to the mill. Of course that is really dependent on the farmer and what they do but the content of this material and fusarium is a disease that's in the soil and enters the plant if it has lesions or through the roots and it starts rotting from the inside so if you see a cane field and the field looks fine maybe some yellow leaves but what is happening is that it's rotting from the inside and so it's decomposing fermenting and by the time that reaches to the mill you basically have just dried material to work with. And a little sugar content. That's going to be touch for grinding it's going to be tough for sugar extraction and of course for everyone because at the end of the day we don't get the sugar and so we can't value that. The other issue is the stem bores that we continuously not treat and those are sort of pathogens. They make the holes on the plants and that's where disease can enter so if we are not able to control that then that will extend to the entire 68K acres of sugar cane field."
Initial estimates were that fusarium would affect 40,000 acres of cane, but that estimate has gone up since then.
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