Latest update December 21st, 2024 12:07 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Industrial Agriculture

Sep 06, 2013 Editorial

Earlier this week, Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, clarified the situation about Ansa McAl and its reported intent to “abandon” its touted US$300 million ethanol-from-sugar-cane complex to utilise 40,000 hectares of land in the Canje Basin. Ansa McAl cited “unsuitable soils” in addition to “excessive rainfall”. We are not so sure what the company meant, since in the modern world, soils of any type can be modified to suit any crop that can be grown under the ambient climatic conditions. As far as “excessive rainfall”, this can be addressed by the construction of appropriate drainage canals.
The investment announced by Ansa McAl some years ago was in line with the rise of “Industrial Agriculture” ever since the “Green Revolution” kicked off in the 1960s. That revolution was intended to address the food crisis that seemed imminent with the dramatic increases in population in the developing world. From that time, new advancements in agricultural technologies yielded stronger, more disease-resistant crops – and not only in food crops.
Today, with the fuel crisis seen as imminent with the depletion of the hydrocarbon reserves, much of the new focus in industrial agriculture is to create alternative fuel supplies. This is what Ansa McAl was shooting for with its ethanol plant.
In announcing that the Ministry was working with the Ministry of Natural Resources to find an alternative site for the company, the Minister also mentioned that there were three other companies that had been given permission to utilise plots of 12,000 hectares each for industrial agriculture for maize, sugar cane, palm oil and soya. Only the last one is a food product – and even with that, its waste product can be used to generate energy.
Today, the term “industrial” farming in society refers to the integration of genetic modification and synthetic fertilizers with conventional farming technologies. It is a bit ironic that the wheel has come full circle, since the cultivation of sugar cane in the West Indies, beginning in the sixteenth century, was the first industrial-scale production of an agricultural crop. In fact its methods of cultivation and processing fed back into the “home countries” to initiate and sustain the Industrial Revolution that has transformed the world.
And this highlights the anomaly in Ansa McAl’s reasons for abandoning the Canje Basin. Historically, the sugar industry in Guyana demonstrated that different soils could be treated to bring their yields exponentially. For instance, acid pegasse solids are routinely neutralised by the addition of lime (calcium oxide). In fact, the logic of Industrial Agriculture inevitably leads to mono cropping (beginning with sugar) which sooner or later demands specialised treatment of any soils that will soon be exhausted.
As one expert noted, with industrial agriculture, “imperatives to diversity disappear and monocultures are rewarded by economies of scale. In turn, lack of rotations and diversification take away key self-regulating mechanisms, turning monocultures into highly vulnerable agro-ecosystems, dependent on high chemical inputs. The technologies allowing the shift toward monoculture were mechanisation, the improvement of crop varieties, and the development of agrochemicals to fertilize crops and control weeds and pests.”
As far as the rainfall is concerned, any investor in Industrial Agriculture in Guyana will have to address the question of adequate water supply. If there is excess rainfall as claimed in the Canje Basin, the problem can be solved through drainage. In the intermediate and interior savannahs, the challenge will be to secure adequate water to irrigate the crop throughout the year. On the coastland, the sugar planters were able to solve the problem through the intricate network of conservancies linked by drainage and irrigation canals to kokers to the Ocean.
All of this means a very large up-front investment that is standard with every Industrial Agricultural project, which it appears that Ansa McAl is not prepared to make. The government should not waste any more time with them. There should be due diligences conducted on the other investors to ascertain whether they are able, and then willing, to make such investments.

 

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

 

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

India produce dominant 60-run win over West Indies to claim 2-1 T20I series victory in Mumbai

India produce dominant 60-run win over West Indies to claim 2-1 T20I...

Dec 20, 2024

SportsMax – The West Indies will have to wait a bit longer for their first T20 International series win over India since 2017 after they were defeated by 60 runs in the Thursday’s decisive...
Read More
Guyanese athletes make mark at second Kares Cross Fit Caribbean event in Suriname

Guyanese athletes make mark at second Kares Cross...

Dec 20, 2024

Minister Ramson tables historic Guyana Horse Racing Authority Bill

Minister Ramson tables historic Guyana Horse...

Dec 20, 2024

Trophy Stall on board with Petra-KFC Goodwill Series 2024

Trophy Stall on board with Petra-KFC Goodwill...

Dec 20, 2024

Topp XX and Winners Connection seeking quarterfinals berth as six matches carded

Topp XX and Winners Connection seeking...

Dec 20, 2024

GFF and MEYBA launch new kits to unite Guyanese fans and boost team performance

GFF and MEYBA launch new kits to unite Guyanese...

Dec 20, 2024

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]