Sugar Cane field burning is carried out before harvesting to ensure and easier process an requires less manual labour. The field is set on fire, the leaves are burned off the stalks, removing about 80% of the “trash” including straw tops and green dry lea
Burning sugar cane fields Caymans estate Jamaica.
'Bitter-Sweet Harvest' - Sugar workers in Jamaica.
In 2003 I had the opportunity of photographing the burning and harvesting of the sugar cane on the Caymanas Estate in St Catherine Jamaica.
Workers Once all the sugar fields are set alight, workers leave the fields.
Sugar cane workers leaving the burning Sugar cane, as they prepare to harvest on the sugar cane fields of Caymanas Estate, St Catherine Jamaica. 2003
One of the many sugar containerst carry the cane off the fields to be processed at Caymanas Sugar Estate.
Working Sugar Plantation Jamaican Sugar Worker,Caymanas Sugar Estate, St Catherine Jamaica.
Sugar workers leave on their bikes work after a long a la long day in the fields
Sugar cane cutters cycle home after a hard day day cutting cane at Caymans estate sugar Sugar Plantation, St Catherine Jamaica 2003. Caymanas was originally a slave plantation owned by Henry Dawkins and It is still used for the cultivation of sugar cane today and has been merged with several other estates to form one large plantation.
Sugar workers take a break.
Working Sugar Plantation
Ho se and kart are still used on Jamaican sugar estates
Working Sugar Plantation
Jamaican Sugar Worker,Caymanas Sugar Estate, St Catherine Jamaica
At its peak sugar cane estates in Jamaica employed 50,000 people. But a mixture of privatisation, and the end of EU quotas combined with closure of estates has hit the Jamaican sugar industry hard. In 2003 I had the opportunity of photographing the burning and harvesting of the sugar cane on the Government owned Caymanas Estate. Using outdated equipment and sugar largely cut by hand in the searing heat, workers make up a substantial number of voters. So successive Jamaican governments have made every effort to keep the industry going. Today, the island economy relies mostly on agriculture and tourism industries. The sugar industry is the oldest continually operating industry in Jamaica, generating the third largest foreign exchange for the island.
Sugar worker leaves fields on a childs bike
Working Sugar Plantation