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Costa Maya sugarcane famers receive harvesting equipment due to labor shortage

Costa Maya, Q.R. — The Government of Quintana Roo has provided Costa Maya sugarcane farmers with state of the art equipment. The new harvesting machines were delivered to replace the manual laborers farmers were unable to find this year.

The new machines are on loan to the 2,142 producers with the National Confederation of Rural Producers AC (CNPR) and the Local Union of Sugar Cane Producers AC (ULPCA) with 1,400 producers. The machines, according to the Government, were provided in response to a recent request.

Producers in the Xul Há region have been struggling to meet their harvesting demands due to a lack of laborers. Most of the hands hired to cut the sugarcane fields each year have opted to work Maya Train jobs instead.

The new equipment meant to help ease that burden is on loan from the government to help the more than 3,500 Quintana Roo sugarcane producers harvest their fields on time.

Evaristo Gómez Díaz, representative of the ULPCA, said the new machines will help make up for the lack of laborers.

“With this harvester, all producers will improve their economy because due to the lack of harvesters, we were left with around 4,000 hectares of uncut fields,” he said.

The new equipment was delivered Wednesday by Governor Mara Lezama and the head of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), Víctor Manuel Villalobos Arámbula.

The units are tracked with electronic joystick steering and transmission, intelligent hydraulic system, AFS autopilot system and telemetry system with 4G connectivity. They have a tire-speed up to 20 kilometers per hour and with a track-speed of up to 9 kilometers per hour.

Linda Saray Cobos Castro, the Secretary of Agricultural, Rural and Fisheries Development (SEDARPE), said in Quintana Roo the sugarcane agroindustry represents the most important economic activity in the southern part of the state, generating around 30,000 jobs.

According to the Government of Quintana Roo, both pieces cost around 19 million pesos and will help farmers harvest the state’s nearly 35,000 hectares of sugarcane fields across 24 ejidos.