Development of a green cane agriculture system

Environmental concerns and community pressure are prompting the Colombian s ugar industry to move rapidly towards green cane harvesting. However, trans ition to green cane requires careful planning, given the heavy cane crop an d tropical, Colombian conditions. The sugar industry acknowledged from an e arly stage that a holistic approach would be required for developing new pr oduction systems, Thus, even before laws were passed to control burning, th e sugar sector began to develop components required for a green cane produc tion system. This has taken place as part of a wider strategy that has evol ved as the program has developed. The strategy addressed many concerns, see king to minimize community pressures, to seek ongoing improvements to the p roduction system, to allow a flexible approach to problem-solving, to devel op various alternatives and to integrate the resulting ideas into commercia lly sound technology packages. Initially, green cane production was regarded as a threat within the indust ry, but a major effort was made to identify and incorporate all possible ad vantages and efficiencies in green cane systems, and to incorporate them. T his paper describes key elements of the strategy, and results obtained.