Assessment of sugarcane crop damage and yield loss caused by high winds of hurricanes

Abstract

Hurricane Iwa struck Kauai, Hawaii, November 23, 1982, causing extensive damage to crops, the vast majority of which were sugarcane. Since sustained hurricane force winds are a rare occurrence in Hawaii very little information was available to develop methods for evaluating the extent of the sugarcane crop damage and for estimating the loss in sugar yields. Our goal was to develop a model for estimating sugar loss and then to verify the model by comparing the model estimated loss with the apparent loss at the mill. The estimated sugar loss was modeled as the sum of losses due to (1) stalk growth termination, (2) metabolic depletion, and (3) reduced assimilation. The effect of each of these processes on yield was estimated for each age of cane from published crop developmental and physiological relationships. The apparent loss at the mill was taken to be the difference in sugar yield for the year following Iwa compared with the average sugar yields for the 2 years preceding Iwa. The estimated losses based on the model were within 10% of the apparent losses at the mill.