Returning to the land is the solution

Feb 03, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Guysuco’s nagging problem is the production of sugar at a cost above its market price. In trying to solve this problem it has been concentrating on two issues: capitalization and labour, the latter of which it has little control over. A third factor of production, land, has received little attention, save for its half-hearted attempts to improve the productivity of land. I say half-hearted, because much of Booker’s practices in increasing land productivity have been abandoned by Guysuco.
I would like to posit that a different utilization of this valuable resource, land, could hold the key to Guysuco’s problem. But most importantly, it could address a serious socio-economic problem that has historically plagued Guyana – the problem of marginalization or alienation of the majority of Guyanese, who are wage-earners, from the true wealth of the nation.
Indeed, this is not a new concept. Ownership and control of our resources had been the mantra of our governments from 1953 to the early 1990s. Unfortunately it was put on the back burner, and today it is even more threatened by encroaching Asian hegemonies, and the attractive beckoning from the North.
Yes, I believe land is not only the source of all wealth, but a people’s proximity to it is spiritually and morally uplifting. Being close to the land is being close to God, especially for those whose birthright it is.
I would further posit that this marginalization/alienation from the true source of wealth is the root cause of an even more persistent plague – our ethnic suspicions of each other.
But let me come back to the issue.
Guysuco holds and controls 164,000 acres of prime land, but occupies between 90,000 and 100,000 acres for sugar production. Most of it already has an elaborate drainage and irrigation infrastructure in place, with about 50,000 acres, considered permanently abandoned, in need of some Drainage and Irrigation repairs, as a result of prolonged abandonment.
I would like to propose that some of this abandoned land be leased out for peasant farming at five acres per farmer. I say lease, because Guysuco’s present policy of selling prime land to private entrepreneurs/developers is not really working, but is actually further exasperating the problem of marginalization, and adds little to Guysuco’s finances, since the developers are only interested in land for non-agro purposes, and are turning over enormous profits of which none goes to Guysuco.
The leases should be provisional and made out for an initial period of ten years, during which certain conditions must be met in order to qualify for renewal, based on such criteria as the farm’s productivity and its debt/equity ratio. After two successive renewals the lease holder should be entitled to full ownership.
Now let us see how much income will be generated for Guysuco. GuySuCo currently produces sugar at an average cost of US$0.35 per pound, while world market prices have averaged US$0.16 per pound. Production last year was estimated at 216,142 tonnes, thus Guysuco lost about $440 per tonne, or $95M for the year.
Leasing 50,000 acres to 10,000 farmers at $200 an acre would bring $50M into Guysuco’s coffers. That alone would solve half of its problem and a great lot of Guyana’s ethno-economic issues. Its increased capitalization and improved factory, field and labour productivity should take care of the rest in five to ten years.
I know a lot of people would be asking what crops these farmers would be engaged in. Well, how about citrus, pineapple, cocoa, coffee, dairy farming, pigs, fish farming and a bunch of others, not to mention cash crops?
I recall, as a boy, eating local chocolate made from cocoa produced at a two hundred-acre cocoa estate at Wales. We need to train our farmers to do intensive instead of extensive farming, to encourage cottage industries, and to make each farm self-sufficient or partially so. They should be assisted to set up their own bio-gas digesters and solar energy systems.
We need to take advantage of the Caribbean’s US$4 billion food import bill. We need to return Guyana to being the bread basket of the Caribbean. But most of all, we need to make the common, marginalized wage earner, existing on a day to day basis, regain his dignity and really live a meaningful life by returning him to the land.
Gokarran Sukhdeo

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