THE EDITOR, Sir:
Every now and then sugar is back in the news. Government either has to write off large debts, inject large amounts of cash or assume liabilities. 'The bitter side of sugar' says the headlines.
Why?
The reason is that the very best farms only produce 4.5 to five tons of sugar per acre, while the best farms abroad produce eight to nine tons of sugar per acre.
Our average is less than two tons per acre compared with 4.5 tons per acre abroad. Our best, therefore, can only be barely average.
The cane that we grow, because it is unable to develop a proper root system, does not grow like, or look like, or produce like, the cane abroad.
Until the problem of low yields due to poor root development is solved, no new factory, no matter how high-tech, no harvesting machinery, no injection of capital will solve the problem.
Vitamins will not cure cancer.
I am, etc.,
CHARLES GILPIN-HUDSON
Guanaboavale P.O.
St. Catherine
