GuySuCo – In Search of Cane Farmers

Aug 30, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

To those who have had substantive professional experience in Guyana’s sugar industry, the most recent “Request for Expression of Interest for the cultivation and delivery of sugar canes to the factories at Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Uitvlugt Estates” – by Individual, Company or Consortium provides opportunity to immediately enquire if existing Cane Farming Cooperatives would be considered as eligible, especially since it is declared that agreement with the Corporation will be in accordance with the National Cane Farming Committee Act, Cap 69:04.

Actually, the legislation referred to includes:

National Cane Farming Committee Act (1965)
Cane Farmers Contract (General Conditions) Rules
Cane Farmers Special Funds Act

…under which cane farmers must be constituted as legal entities. Estates are described under the Act as ‘Manufacturers’. (The Legal Draftsman at the time, Keith Massiah, eventually rose to become Chancellor of the Judiciary).

On the institution of the cane farming structure, to each estate was appointed a Cane Farming Officer who was equipped to advise on the required quality of canes to be planted, timing, and sampling for eventual acceptance by the particular factory.

There was of course a very active National Cane Farming Committee at which production targets were agreed, taking into consideration the varying agricultural conditions on respective estates. Price, payment schedule and other related conditions of delivery were agreed at the Committee level – per estate. One implication was the very meticulous record-keeping. It had always to be borne in mind that the ‘agreement’ between ‘Farmer’ and ‘Manufacturer’ was a substantive legal document, the breach of which had consequential implications – up to the courts.

Consideration must now be given to the current relationship between existing individual cane farmers, Cooperative Cane Farming Societies, within GuySuCo’s proposed new dispensation – which is a critical investment that would require experienced management at both ends of the production process. Of the estates identified, Blairmont is the one totally without any related experience, while Rose Hall is in the process of considerable reconstruction. What obtains in terms of skills and experience is for a rather uneven playing field – indeed to work on. There will have to be a very expansive (and indeed expensive) search for the right leadership capabilities.

For the many, including in GuySuCo, who may be unfamiliar with the history of Cane Farming, the following Table may just be of some interest:

All the foregoing anticipates a most comprehensive training and development programme for the prospective participants. And of course, an expert research centre will be most needed – to advise on the application of appropriate fertilisers; not to mention the identification of disease, for example.

It would be most instructive to observe GAWU’s reaction to this combustion of the sugar industry.

E.B. John
Retired Human Resources Director
Initial Coordinator of Corporate
Cane Farming Development

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