Making a Living during the Dead Season in Sugar-Producing Regions of the Caribbean

Abstract

Recent technological changes have intensified the seasonal labor requirements in sugar cane production in the Caribbean. Much more labor is needed during the harvest and grinding season than in the period between harvests, known as the "dead season." This paper examines the means by which seasonally-employed cane workers gain a livelihood during the dead season, bearing in mind that the means used must be such that the workers will again be available to the sugar producers the next harvest season. It is concluded that in most areas a livelihood is provided either by minifundia or by supplemental occupations outside the sugar industry. Which of these alternatives prevails depends upon the demographic conditions that existed when the technological innovations responsible for the dead season were introduced. A third alternative is present in socialist Cuba, where nonsugar workers are made temporarily available for harvest season labor. All three patterns can be seen as alternative structural responses to conditions imposed by the ecology of sugar cane production in the Caribbean area.