Unanswered questions involving burned and non-burned sugarcane harvesting

摘要

Traditional sugarcane harvesting in many sugar industries around the world includes pre-harvest or at least the preloading burning of sugarcane to remove extraneous material (trash) from the cane stalks. This trash is normally defined as the immature tops associated with mature cane stalks and the side leaves that still attached to the stalk. Other benefits of burning include removal of undesirable fauna and flora from the field as well as improvement in harvesting rates for both manual and mechanical harvesting. In many cases, burning sugarcane fields prior to combine harvesting significantly improves operator visibility and makes accurate steering possible in badly lodged fields. As a result of these issues, the practice of sugarcane burning hasbecome a long-standing ritual in many industries. Most recently, environmental and health concerns have initiated efforts to eliminate or at least reduce the amount of sugarcane area that is burned. In 2003, most industries have come to the realizationthat any transition from harvesting sugar burned (traditional) to harvesting unburned (green cane harvest) is as difficult as predicted but is a universal concern of utmost importance.