Guysuco explains its survival techniques to Essequibo school children

Oct 14, 2010 News

In observance of Agriculture Month, Guysuco, venturing to the Essequibo Coast for the first time, held a lecture and demonstration session focusing primarily on the sugar cane. The lecture, which was attended by secondary school students from throughout the region, and some primary school children, was held in the Anna Regina Secondary School auditorium.
Also present were other senior officers attached at Guysuco’s.
Students, accompanied by teachers were engaged in an informative lecture intended to both inform and educate the audience about some of the challenges, more particularly as these relate to the levels of Guysuco’s production of the past few years.

Some of the school children at the Anna Regina Secondary School auditorium.

There was also a focus on the many initiatives being taken by Guysuco, not to only overcome those challenges in the shortest possible time, but also to expand production to an unprecedented levels over the next few years, according to Head of the Communication’s unit, Guysuco, Romel Roopnarine.
To achieve those goals, Roopnarine has confirmed that the corporation has embarked on a strategic plan aimed at turning the fortunes around. One of the first hurdles that he referred to was the reduction in opportunity days, every year to prepare crops and to harvest them.
“In fact, just over ten years, the opportunity days available were 120 days. Given basically reasonable weather this was enough for workers to till the land with our machines, plant our crops, execute maintenance of the miles and miles of roadway and canals, ensure good crop husbandry practices and harvest our crops among other responsibilities. Last year the number of opportunity days was 57.
Roopnarine said that it was a clear indication of a decrease of more than 100 per cent. Due to that alarming decrease, Roopnarine stressed that the corporation embarked on a mechanization drive to supplement the work force in an effort to complete the business of producing sugar in the limited and unpredicted period available.
Some other of the challenges highlighted included the prolonged effects of El Nino. Since August, the decrease in the level of fresh water in conservancies, the corporation’s only source of fresh water, led to a decrease in the storage levels, and affected harvesting.
According to Roopnarine, Guysuco is also vulnerable to external shocks, one of which was the decline in the value of the Euro. “This significantly affects our revenues as a significant a percentage of our sugar is shipped to the European Union.
“This is coupled with full implementation this year, of the European Union price cuts on our sugar exports, which will result in the industry losing around $10billion annually.”
Roopnarine said that the corporation’s continued foresight that has been adopted to overcome the many challenges has begun to see the conversion of the estates into machine friendly layouts. He said that this is a modern initiative to supplement the labour force.
He added that the corporation has also introduced cane harvesting and cane loading machines, which will significantly, improves production by reducing the workload of workers and the time it would take to harvest designated areas on the estates.
The company also hopes to produce 400,000 tonnes of sugar by 2013 and 110,000 tonnes annually, while producing 10,000 tonnes of package sugar annually, which is exported both locally and the Caribbean.
Varieties Agronomist, Harrinarine Lakeraj, lectured on the breeding and selection of sugar cane.