GUYANA: GUYSUCO says El Nino affecting cane
Published: 03/12/2010, 8:45:21 AM
The extended El Nino period has been having severe effects on cane cultivation across the sugar industry, particularly on the East Demerara estate, according to the Guyana national news agency GINA.
Guyana had experienced a strikingly similar El Nino phenomenon during the first sugarcane crop of 1998, the sugar company said.
Average rainfall figures for January, February, November and December across the sugar industry from 1997 to 2008 were 244.7mm, 108.1mm, 92.9mm and 251.6mm respectively.
In comparison, the corresponding figures for January and February 2010 were 48.5mm and 44mm and for November and December 2009 they were 34.2mm and 64.7mm respectively.
The Demerara Estates source their water from the East and West Demerara Water Conservancies, whereas, the East Berbice Estates obtain their supplies from the Canje Creek.
At the beginning of the crop in early February, the East and West Demerara Conservancies were bordering on their dead storage levels where water can only be obtained from them by the use of pumps.
For the East Demerara Estates in particular, apart from the negligible rainfall during the months of January and February 2010; evaporation from the navigation and irrigation canals is in the order of a quarter of an inch per day, the GuySuCo release said.
Evaporation losses alone across the industry from November 2009 to present would amount to millions of gallons of water.
The industry is suffering from an enormous deficit of soil moisture for sugarcane crops on the East Demerara Estates.
The East Berbice Estates are in a better position because they can still source adequate supplies via large fixed pumps from the Canje Creek.
Because of the extremely dry conditions, the sugarcane crop is generally under severe moisture stress and is compounded by the fact that water supply from GuySuCo's main sources have dwindled.
Conservancies and Rivers are at their lowest levels and saline water has moved very far upstream.
On the Enmore, LBI, Wales and Uitvlugt Estates, stunted cane growth can be observed in fields in which canes have turned pale yellow.
"It was after we missed the seasonal November/December rains, it was established with a high degree of certainty that the industry would be experiencing an acute water shortage," the company said.
A water management meeting was held at the Blairmont Training Centre on January 12, 2010 to sensitise all estates about the critical water situation and the need to maintain water management strategies of which the experiences during the El Nino phenomenon of 1998 have been factored into.
Water management strategies adopted by GuySuCo includes; optimum water conservation practices, recirculation/recycling of water, monitoring of water availability, monitoring of water control structures, appropriate harvesting sequence and appropriate crop husbandry practices.
The industry has also utilised its fleet of mobile pumps and irrigators to sustain the supply of water required for the various operations across the industry.
Tractor driven pumps were also hired to re-circulate water from the drainage system into the irrigation system.
GuySuCo stated that it also has large fixed pumps, which are used to re-circulate water from the drainage system into its navigation system across the industry.
However, after several cycles of recirculation during the current dry spell, the water quality has deteriorated and particularly in the front-lands, the water within the navigation system cannot be used for irrigation.
Therefore, canes within the front-lands cannot be irrigated at this point in time. As a consequence, all the Demerara Estates have had to cut back on their replanting programme.
The industry has had to confine irrigation to plant cane for germination and to plant two to seven months old, which are in their boom growing period.
Due to the water unavailability and issues regarding quality and also partly due to insufficient mobile pumps, ratoon cane cannot be irrigated at the current time.
These canes would be dependent on rainfall when it eventually arrives. With careful management of the available water resources and with assistance from the NDIA, the Estates have so far managed to keep their punts afloat for cane transport and to keep their factories grinding during the first crop of 2010.