Dry spell dims harvest prospects as cane farmers look to improve yields

Mark Sealy, chairman of Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (File Photo) Barbados’ sugar industry is exploring year-round electricity generation for the national grid, with cane farmers and the government examining the use of bagasse, king grass and high-fibre cane to help secure the industry’s future, Barbados TODAY can reveal. The plans would mark a significant shift from the traditional production of raw sugar and molasses towards new models that can feed the national grid with green power. Mark Sealy, chairman of Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL), said on Monday that his grouping of private cane farmers was collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture and the cooperative-run Barbados Energy and Sugar Company (BESCO) to ensure the centuries-old industry’s future was efficient and sustainable. He told Barbados TODAY: “The energy side would be burning bagasse during the crop, and producing energy that can be fed back into the grid. So, we are looking at that option. If it was Portvale, then there would have to be some retrofitting in there to do that; and if it was possibly somewhere else, who knows. There are numerous models that we are looking at at the moment. “We are reasonably excited about the sugar cane industry going forward. We are looking at things like, should we produce sugar molasses, should we produce syrup? Obviously we have got the energy components in there from bagasse; but also we are looking at doing energy for the rest of the year from king grass or high fibre cane. All of those things we are working on, to try and see if we can make the industry more efficient and obviously sustainable.” Sealy said it was important for Barbadians to know about these plans so they would not think the producers were “just sitting down and going from crop to crop.” You Might Be Interested In He gave assurances that farmers and other industry figures were doing their best to secure sugar’s future and create a value-added industry. “One of the big important things as far as I am concerned is keeping Barbados green and keeping Barbados’ food security top of mind. With sugar cane, you rotate 25 per cent of the acreage in food crops; and that’s obviously very important; and then of course, with king grass or high fibre cane throughout the rest of the year, you will also rotate 25 per cent in food crops. And it’s very, very important and top of mind with both us and the government that Barbados’ food security is top of mind.” Turning to this year’s harvest, Sealy said he was hopeful of an improvement, identifying “reasonably good rainfall” in recent months as a possible contributing factor. He cautioned, however, that dry conditions had affected cane growth and would limit prospects for next year’s crop. “Luckily, we got a little bit of rain between September and November. Obviously, June, July and August were very, very dry, and that would have affected our ratoon canes for next year because we had very little growth in those three months. We have had some reasonable rains over the last few months, but obviously, we are never going to catch up to the amount of rainfall that we really need for a good crop. So, we expect that next year’s crop is not going to be great.” Planting was in progress, with the season running from September to the end of November, he said. But projections for 2027 were not yet available. Work on those estimates would begin shortly, said Sealy, who hoped the data would show increased output, noting that last year was “a particularly poor year”. Despite industry unrest and confusion over control of Barbados’ sugar industry, the government announced a substantial yield for the 2025 sugar cane crop. Around 96 000 tonnes of sugar cane were harvested last year. This produced 3.8 million kilogrammes of sugar and 6.8 million kilogrammes of molasses. But Sealy was upbeat about the industry’s prospects, which he said benefited from a recent seminar on improving yields. All BSIL farmers and those under the Agricultural Business Company Limited (ABC) had attended and were excited about future production prospects, he added. “I must say that I am particularly pleased that there are so many people who are contributing to that effort [to improve yields] even people who are retired. So, I think we are reasonably excited about the sugar cane industry going forward.” The growers’ spokesman also announced that BSIL farmers had received their payments from the 2026 harvest. “We actually received all of our payments by the end of September, which was the agreement. So, that was excellent, and we thank BESCO and the government for doing that. That has helped the farmers to purchase plant cane fertiliser, which would either be put on at planting or in January. “So, all in all, we are on track. We are doing the best we can in difficult conditions because we just didn’t have any rain for about three months.” (EJ)