FROME, Westmoreland – Fred Hamaty, a former People’s National Party (PNP) senator, is recommending that government enact a ‘Cane Fires Prevention Act’ in a bid to stamp out the illicit burning of cane.

“The government needs to generate a Cane Fires Prevention Act,” the former Westmoreland cane farmer told the Observer yesterday, noting that “offences under this act be triable and punished in a Resident Magistrate’s Court”.

The Sunday Observer reported that government would this week unleash the army and police on arsonists who were last year blamed for $350 million worth of illicit cane fires in Westmoreland.

But Hamaty pointed out that while the government must be congratulated in engaging the police and the army to help patrol the cane fields, this move was not sustainable.

“We have gone that way before with limited support,” the attorney-at-law told the Observer.

He noted that in 2001 a Parliamentary Committee was set up by the PNP government under the chairmanship of then member of parliament Ronald Thwaites to make recommendations to save the sugar industry.

That committee, he said, had wide industry and public input.

Among the recommendations of the Thwaites Committee, Hamaty said, were suggestions that could assist in helping to subdue illicit fires in the Westmoreland and Hanover area.

Yesterday, Hamaty emphasised that the proposed ‘Cane Fires Prevention Act’, which formed part of the recommendations coming out of the committee, must now be placed on the table in an effort to save the already dying sugar industry.

“The act would deal specifically with the burning of canes and the prevention of it, so it would be a statutory offence and things could be put in there to regulate how you fashion the industry,” Hamaty explained.

“Under the proposed act, persons entering or leaving cane fields with combustible materials, for example, would be charged,” said the attorney.

Additionally, he said, farmers who wish to burn their cane fields in preparation for reaping must advise the police and the fire department, under the act.

The island’s sugar sector – particularly the Frome Division of the state-run Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) – has long been affected by the illicit burning of cane.

During the 2005/2006 crop alone, illicit cane fires in the Westmoreland/Hanover area resulted in an estimated loss of $350 million.

And since the start of the current crop on December 7, 2006, more than 35,000 tonnes of cane were affected by 130 illicit fires, against just over 17,000 tonnes for the corresponding period the previous year. Those losses have been put at $40 million.

It is estimated that during the cropping season, Frome Sugar Factory – the island’s largest sugar-processing plant – generates roughly $35 million weekly in the economy of Hanover and Westmoreland.