Sugar Cane Cutters – Cane Harvest Season – 1970s – Mauritius

The Sugar Cane Harvest Season in Mauritius normally starts in June every year and ends up around December at most. In the past, the sugar canes were harvested manually, that is, manual workers would equip themselves with their sickle (serpe) and in groups would cut down the sugar canes covering area by area, and later on pick up those which have been cut to load them into lorries (or ox-carts at the time).

Traditional Loading of Sugar Cane – Austin Lorry – 1960s

This looks quite acrobatic when the workers would climb those ‘madriers’ with their sugar cane loads and drop them in the truck. In the old days it certainly looked quite high and effort demanding, but today’s trucks discharge their bin which is manually loaded then the bin is re-attached to the lorry.

Sugar Cane Harvest – 1980s

Fortunately to say, with time and development, these manual works have been replaced by specialised machinery which automatically cuts and cleans the canes and load them directly into trackers or lorries running at their sides. Probably some may think that their is a loss in employment, but these manual workers were underpaid for such jobs, and in an econimical aspect, machinery is more profitable in the long run, for in terms of investment and time.

Sugar Cane Harvest by Machinery – Mauritius – 2010