why sugarcane needs manual labour from sowing and harvesting
Answers
Planting, tending ,and harvesting sugar cane is labour intensive and cane cutting in particular is a tough physical operation whereby cane cutters stoop, slash and stack the individual stalks of cane for hours on end. Thus slave labour was used as very few workers would voluntarily undertake this task!
It was found that cane cutters invariably had swollen hearts on death due mainly to the fact that due to the heat and sweating, they consumed high volumes of salt carried in a bag with them during the labour hours. The concentration of salt in the blood caused the heart muscles to expand over time. Not that the swollen heart killed them, but the supposition is that the consumption of excessive salt caused the postmortem findings of swollen hearts.
There is now days equipment in Brazil, for example, for the cutting of cane, but countries like Zimbabwe refuses to allow the importation of such equipment due to the negative effect it would have on the labour market involving employed cane cutters.