Why diversify with rice and not other products?

Oct 02, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I have not written to the press for a long time. I was born in a sugar estate I grew up in one. All my family worked in sugar. My cousins worked there also and as field secretary to GAWU. My father worked for free then he became a sample boy then rose to be a manager. I spent a lot of time roaming the factory at Rose Hall Estate. I enjoyed catching fish at the abandoned fields. It’s funny but as the managers would chase people fishing there, when they saw me they would say “hello Bisessar”as they knew me.
At University, I did one of my long papers on sugar. I also recall Fred Sukdeo did a paper on sugar. You know I think he might have been the best person to head the COI if I say so myself. I recall the six weeks strike involving bauxite and sugar. The transport workers, the public servants and the transport workers did not join in the strike but they all benefitted from the 40% increase.
I was a teacher then. I woke up every morning at 5.00 AM and I went with my cousin, the Field Secretary, to meet and organise the workers. I held meetings with the workers and joined in the organisation and collection of food destined for the striking bauxite workers. The flow to bauxite workers by GAWU was so effective the GDF invaded GAWU headquarters and seized the goods destined for them.
As a consequence of my involvement I was transferred from teaching in a secondary school to teach Prep A. I resigned after some months. While a believer in the struggle of working people in general for betterment, I did have a closer affinity to sugar. This interest prompted me to read the COI and a few things came to my attention that I would mention here.
The COI mentioned two varieties of sugar. My question to the bosses in Guysuco, “Is there a third variety, one that was introduced here with the blessings of the Indian Government? And is it true that this particular variety has a sucrose content of 25% compared to 18% contained in the two species mentioned? Is it true that this variety ripens in eight months compared to 12 months that it takes the other species? Is it true that this variety can be planted five feet apart because the clumps are huge and so saves man hours in the planting?
Is it true that one of the proposals was to plant legumes between the plants because of the available space and would this also enrich the soil and so reduce the need for fertilisers? Is it true that the new variety can give over fifty tons an acre and because of the higher sucrose content it can permit over four tons an acre (TSA) compared to less than 2.5 TSA at the present time? Big private cane farmers actually get 3.3 TSA. The new variety if my information is correct would allow us to produce a ton of sugar using less than 11 tons of cane (TCTS of 11).
Other questions – why was flood fallow stopped when the estates were geared for flood fallow every 5 years? Fallow means less fertilisers, less insecticides as the flood kills them; less weeding as the grass is destroyed. Why cane ripeners? Bookers never used it but produced over 3.3 TSA, Where are the managers? Their absence facilitates the dumping of insecticide and fertilisers. Some are involved in personal marketing of such. Do we need the big Ogle Empire? Shut it down. Let the estates or group of estates manage themselves and we have a marketing department.
Why have we not explored the production of Jaggri (organic sugar) especially at Wales Estate? This is extremely profitable and can be produced easily by the farmers or we can use the factory and curtail the boiling before crystallization of the sugar. We do not have to centrifuge out the molasses as it is included in the production of Jaggri. Why was this not mentioned in the COI? I personally brought up these issues with the chairman of the COI but I see no mention of these in it. Why not ethanol? Why rice. If we diversify, high end crops the New GGMC can get off its seat and export them. We are importing enormous amount of carrots.
There is so much more I can say but I stop and wait. Maybe I am wrong but I wait on the authorities to tell me that I am wrong, that I am mistaken. In the meantime the private farmers are using the other variety. Let Bhim deny knowledge of this variety, Maybe there is good grounds for his ignoring it, that is, if I am right and it does exist.
Rajendra Bissesar

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