Agriculture Minister says… Rose Hall Sugar Estate to be reopened in time for next crop

Jan 26, 2023 News

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…Shadow AG wants cash transfers, housing and other polices to be part of social safety net 

Kaieteur News – Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, has described the performance of the country’s non-oil economy as “credibly excellent” having contributed some 11.5 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, of which agriculture contributed, nine percent. The Agriculture Minister during his presentation to the 2023 budget debates, highlighted a number of positives he said is taking place in the sector. The Minister informed that by the next crop, the closed Rose Hall Sugar Estate will be reopened and some 1500 workers will be re-employed. The Minister further pointed out that several thousand hectares more of rice lands will be cultivated, several crops and animal raring trials will continue, while those completed will be developed and that there will be improved and added infrastructure for the sector.

Mustapha’s first swing was aimed at previous presenters on the opposition side who heavily criticized the Government’s multi-billion dollar contribution to a sector that continues to bring no profit to the country. The Minister opined that while the Opposition claimed to have been “right-sizing” the sugar industry, they would have caused its decline since taking office.

“We have seen what happened and who destroy this industry,” the Minister posited. He said in 2014 when the current Government left office the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCO) was producing 216,352 metric tonnes of sugar. By 2019 that number had moved to 92,256 mt. In 2015, he said the Skeldon Sugar factory produced 39, 157 mt while in 2016 produced 31, 783 mt. In 2017, he said production fell to 14,000 tonnes, “and that was the end of Skeldon”. In 2016, four estates were abandoned and thousands of workers left without a job. Today, the Minister said, the Government has employed approximately, 1500 of those dismissed workers and “…later on this year, the second crop of this year, Rose Hall, one of the estates they closed… will be reopened…”

The Agriculture Minister said that the Opposition increased drainage and irrigation and land rental costs by 6000 percent having increased the sums from $3,500 to $15,000 but now speak of rice problems.  He claimed that the former Government lost the lucrative Venezuelan market, and abandoned farmers exporting rice to Panama causing the current Government to now work to recuperate monies still owned to local growers. To further boost the sector, Mustapha said that rice will increase by 170,000 hectares which will be planted this year as well as increased yields in rice varieties.

The Minister noted that Region 1 for example has been declared the area where all the country’s spices will be produced as that location is expected to be a main producer of cocoa, nutmeg, and ginger, which will then be exported from the region to Trinidad and Tobago and other Eastern Caribbean countries. He reported too that by 2025, Guyana will be self- sufficient with its soya bean and corn production as this area continues to develop. He said that the Black giant bird has increased production and mentioned the importation of breeding bulls to up supply to the beef market.

Like other Opposition Members of Parliament (MP), when the Shadow Attorney General (AG), Roysdale Forde, SC took to the podium, he waded into the Government for not addressing cost of living and quality of life issues for citizens despite the increases garnered from oil revenues. Specifically, the Shadow AG felt that the Government’s claims against oil cash transfers due to affordability has no basis in evidence, “…other than the partisan desire to keep poor, vulnerable persons from benefitting from our oil wealth therefore increasing the poverty gap.” Forde said that cash transfers must not only be delivered to the poor and vulnerable based on needs, but to every household. He said that despite an abundance of oil resources, the Government has failed to expand and overhaul the social safety net. He said that the Government “must at once provide unemployment grants, establish a social safety net that addresses the circumstances of young people, elders and women in our society.”

Forde pointed to Government’s “persistent” failure toward livable wages and salaries and the constitutional right to collective bargaining for all unionized public servants or where the Government is a shareholder. He suggested that the administration act now and move to the bargaining table with the trade unions for increased wages and salaries and improved conditions of work reflective of an oil and gas economy. Forde added that the 50 percent increase as campaigned by the Government has not been given to workers. Instead, “unilaterally tossing less than 20 percent increase in wages and salaries to public servants in three years “is as discriminatory as it can get”. Forde noted that in 2020 public servants got no increase, while a seven percent taxable increase was tossed in 2021 and in 2022 an eight percent taxable increase announced.

“What is needed for the small man in this country,” Forde suggested, “is a helping hand up, not the Government’s boot on his neck.” He said development by the Government is meaningless if all citizens cannot access benefits.  He said the Government is overseeing the massive transfer of state wealth and providing large contracts to the identified ‘One Guyana’ while disregarding public workers and the vulnerable. He said policies continue to miss the mark on efficiently benefitting citizens.

Forde opined that in the world’s fastest growing economy, “the Government ignores that 49 percent of the people are living in poverty, 48 percent of the population is existing on less than G$1200 dollars a day. And it is in this Guyana that pensioners are expected to survive on $33,000 per month with today’s cost of living”. The Shadow AG insisted that these groups which represent the majority of Guyana get no direct benefit from the fastest growing economy, only “that special ‘One Guyana’ is benefitting from this growth.”

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• Gross Domestic Product, Members of Parliament (MP), Rose Hall Sugar Estate, Roysdale Forde, Zulfikar Mustapha

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