But the profits that will come from this project will not benefit cane farmers because they are not shareholders of cogeneration. Farmers have been excluded from this GOB-BSI-BEL deal. BSI will undoubtedly use some of these profits to produce more cane to cover any shortfall of bagasse to fuel their cogeneration plant. On the other hand, cane farmers? production fell by 15 percent for the last 2004?2005 crop, and now they have been hit with a sharp cut of 39% in the European Union sugar price. Thirty nine percent is a huge cut that will certainly doom almost 60% – the majority of cane farmers. That is a fact. At present, the farmers face high production costs because of skyrocketing prices for fuel, fertilizers, herbicides and machinery. Coupled with deteriorated sugar roads that destroy their machinery, the farmers will be unable to produce cane profitably this year or the next. They will disappear. Big corporations will take over the industry. Defining cane farmers? future includes securing grants to help them in all aspects of efficient production from preparing land to reaping the mature cane. This means access to duty-free fuel, fertilizer, herbicides and machinery for a determined recovery period. But all of this has to be done along with the repair of all sugar roads to bring out the product for delivery to the factory. Hipolito Bautista Secretary CRESCA (Comite Rescatista de los Caneros)
AMANDALA, a biweekly newspaper published on Tuesdays and Fridays, was founded as an organ of the United Black Association for Development (UBAD), which emerged on August 13, 1969. Even after UBAD was divided and later dissolved in 1974, AMANDALA remained.
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