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From sugar which failed to rice which failed

Sep 19, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
In an article on the crop diversification which appeared in the news media of Sept. 16, Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) announced that it is diversifying abandoned sugar lands at Wales Estate to grow rice with the hope of returning its operations to profitability. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) claimed that the Corporation had previously experimented with rice growing at its Blairmont Estate in the 1980’s but he gave no indication as to its profitability then although its cultivation was discontinued.
Rice is Guyana’s second largest crop which is grown mostly by small subsistence farmers. The price they receive for their crops varies from one harvest to the other which is determined by the fluctuating world price for rice and crop yields.
Unfortunately, Guyana cannot produce rice cheaper than Asian countries who dominate the world markets.
It is puzzling therefore that a loss making sugar growing Corporation is diversifying its cultivation from sugar into another loss making crop. Further, GuySuCo does not have the financial, management and technical know-how to convert sugar lands to cultivate rice as laser/lidar land levelling skills and equipment are unavailable in Guyana.
As I sit around my dining table here in New York writing this letter, I noted that my fruit bowl contains bananas from Ecuador, citrus from Peru, avocados from the Dominican Republic, mangoes from Haiti, pineapple from Costa Rica and flowers from Columbia.
All these produce were grown in tropical countries in the Americas and are being sold in developed countries at a reasonable profit.
The PNC-AFC Govt. and by implication GuySuCo seemed to have lost their way as they have no clear cut policy as to what should be done with the abandoned sugar lands as the Corporation continues to survive on Government subsidies while its operation contracts and its production costs escalate. Sooner or later GuySuCo will have to liquidate its assets to payoff its debts and wean itself off Government subsidies which are strangling the economy.
Hence the Govt. has to ‘bite the bullet’ and make the tough decisions so necessary to get the Guyanese economy back on track to create the jobs which will be needed for all those impending redundant sugar workers.
Charles Sohan

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