Why are sugarcane fields burned?
LOUISIANA (KLFY) -- To the untrained eye, a burned field may look like a wildfire may have passed through it. What you may not realize is that burning the field is part of the sugarcane farming process.
Mike Strain, the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, said burning cane fields has been a common practice for more than 200 years. Its purpose is to make the land ready for the next harvest.
Farmers must go through training and get a license to know how to safely control the fire.
"In order to become a certified prescribed burner, you have to do coursework. You also have to do at least five burns under the tutelage of another certified prescribed burner," Strain said.
Weather conditions, mixing height, wind speed, and other factors are all taken into consideration when conducting a control burn. Strain said the ash fertilizes the soil and the burning helps make room for the new cane to break through the ground.
"If we don't burn it, then the cane plants will inhibit the ability of the new cane plant to erupt through the ground and really get into the sun. Without burning it, you can lose 10 to 15% of the next year's production," Strain said.
New technology is in development which may eliminate the need to burn fields.
"The cane will then be put up onto the tracks of the machine. Those tracks will push it down into the actually the furrow, you know, between the rows of cane, which may then eliminate our need to burn it," Strain said.
"It would break down more organically and would not put any of the chaff on top of the row. We would not have the problem of the plant trying to harvest through," he continued.
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