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Kayman Sankar, rice magnate, dies
Acclaimed as Guyana’s most successful rice farmer/miller, Kayman Sankar, a/k “Polo” died after a prolonged illness on Tuesday evening, at his Hampton Court residence. Sankar was 87.
Kayman Sankar
He is survived by his wife of 69-years Seraji Sankar, aka “Mavis” and their three children, Seeta, Beni Sankar and Sita.
He is to be cremated according to Hindu rights come Friday.
His wife said that her ailing husband died between 5:30 and 6:30pm Tuesday evening. She said during his final hours, Sankar was crying and was unable to speak.
Sankar, who rose from a pauper to a millionaire, became a household name on the Essequibo Coast and Guyana as a whole, was born on June 3, 1926, at Cornelia Ida, West Coast. He was the eldest of five siblings.
Sankar worked as a labourer on the Cornelia Ida estate as a young boy after his parents couldn’t have afforded to continue his Primary Education. He began his life as a rice farmer in 1956, at Dunkeld/Perth and Bounty Hall, on the Essequibo Coast.
Sankar partnered with his brother Mahadoe Sankar and nephew Nandalall to purchase a large portion of land at Dunkeld/Perth. Their first five years of cultivating rice were not successful and their crops failed in succession. However, their determined efforts finally brought success in 1966 after Sankar acquired another 1,556 acres of land at Hampton Court.
According to a report, despite skepticism, major development works began in 1967. The first crop was cultivated in 1968 and all lands were fully developed in1968.The Company was registered in1975 and the second phase of expansion began.
In 1984 two rice mills were installed. And so was a rice sheller and length grader. Sankar and Company was on its way to becoming the largest private rice miller in the Country. In 1985 the Company further expanded to include Sankar Air Division and in 1988 the establishment of a rice drying and storage facility, doing away with the tedious and risky chore of drying paddy under the sun.
Over the years, Kayman Sankar, rice farmer/miller employed a number of workers, and he assisted them in acquiring their own homes, especially from Hampton-Court and neighboring villages.
Most recently, however, his company and acres of rice land was rented out to rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast. (Yannason Duncan).
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