Give the sugar estates to the sugar workers

Jan 26, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
GAWU should fight for the sugar estates to remain open so the redundant sugar workers can still earn a living on them. These workers should be given 10 acres of these lands where they can cultivate cash and other crops.
They can even plant cane and sell it to other estates. Others can cultivate rice on it.
There is a big demand for water and dry coconuts. These lands are well laid out for the cultivation of nuts. I worked at Wales estates and I know how the lands are situated in beds.
Lots of plantains, citrus and vegetables pines can grow there.
This land is suitable for the cultivation of paddy; the infrastructures are already in place. It has bountiful black water to grow the crops, there are checks in place to irrigate the water from panel to panel, the dams are in good condition.
The rice crops will grow well on this land and will be free from paddy bugs and weeds, the yield will be excellent because the land will for the first time be growing rice. I foresee farmers can reap 60 bags per acre.
Combines will have easy access reaping the crops once the land is dried properly. I see no difficulty in this because the lands are level and the water will drain off easily. There should be block planting so each farmer can have water into his field, when block is finished irrigating the water should release to the other block, this can rotate during the bearing stage so every field can have enough water to grow it out.
With block planting there are hardly any insects or paddy bugs to affect the grain of the paddy. There is also an advantage, during the harvesting time all the paddy won’t ripe at the same time so the millers can buy and dry it in time.
They can take in the paddy without any difficulty and it won’t spoil. The rice extension officers can teach the cane farmers when they are allocated the lands, how to cultivate their paddy. Where the coconuts are concerned we have a big market for both in Trinidad and other countries. They can bring more foreign currency into the country. A young coconut palm will take three to five years to bear and it will be there all the time bearing.
Plantains also have markets overseas, so my advice is to integrate these sugar workers into the sugar industry and don’t close it down entirely, find jobs for theses retrenched workers so they can earn a living and take care of their families. This will make their life easy once more because they won’t have to be job hunting.
The severance pay will look big now but in a couple of days’ time it will finish. If you give the sugar workers a piece of land they can always hand it over to their families when they get old and they will have something in their names.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan.

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Give the sugar estates to the sugar workers

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