Rains Help to Cool Down Dry Season Nancy Lopez Sanchez - The News
go to original April 30, 2012

(The News)

The Tabasco State Forest Commission (Comesfor) reported that sugar farmers in the state have practiced swailing, or field burning, on 9,000 hectares of farmland this dry season.

Recent rains in the state have been beneficial to farmers, helping them control the fires, said Miguel Nazur Rivera, the head of the Comesfor.

“We have done pretty well. There has been considerable humidity and rain in some parts of the state, which has benefited us,” he said. “It has rained in the mountainous region, in the Los Ríos area, and this has given us the opportunity to deal with what people call a terrible dry season; but it has not been terrible.”

Swailing, or field burning, is used to help farmers clear their land of any existing crop residues or weeds to prepare to plant another crop.

Agricultural burning is potentially dangerous, Nazur Rivera said, because if the appropriate control measures are not applied, fires can spread to nearby forests. Comesfor and the National Forest Commission (Conafor) are currently running a campaign to educate farmers about the dangers of field burning.

Nazur Rivera said the 9,000 hectares of sugar cane were burned with special permission from the state. Also, between 25 and 35 hectares of grasslands were burned.

The official also said that there have been fires on roadsides, but that these do not pose a large risk.

Fires were also set in the natural reserve of Los Pantanos de Centia to burn two hectares of land, said Nazur Rivera.

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