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GuySuCo and diversification
Kaieteur News – The headline screamed from the Stabroek News on Tuesday: “President vows to make sugar `great again.” It was one of the many comical statements, Guyanese have become used to from President Ali. The catch phrase is also a slogan being used by current US President Donald Trump that has evolved into a movement- Make America Great Again (MAGA).
The announcement was made by President Ali on Monday at the 77th Anniversary observance of the Enmore Martyrs, at East Coast Demerara, where he outlined what he described as a strategy to reimagine GuySuCo’s role in Guyana’s agriculture sector. “We have to think strategically of how we will expand the role of GuySuCo. And perhaps it is time for us to reimagine GuySuco’s role altogether. Why must its mandate stop only at sugar? GuySuCo can and must become a hub of rural economic development,” the president said.
It is noteworthy, that despite the government pumping billions of dollars into the sugar corporation, the company has been failing. President Ali also said that GuySuCo’s land, infrastructure and knowledge base can support the production of other crops as well as livestock operations, agro-processing hubs, farmer trading and extension services, fabrication and engineering services. “The global machinery industry historically recruited machinists and fabricators from GuySuCo. We have to leverage this human capital and human potential. And in embracing this future that I speak of, there will be some exciting opportunities. Crop diversification, skills diversification, income diversification,” the president announced.
Here we have the President vowing as the Stabroek News headline says to make sugar great again, but laying out a plan to diversify GuySuCo by planting corn and cassava. We have no problem with the diversification plan if the government is sincere about it, but political meddling will block any progress. The corporation’s potential remains untapped. Imagine GUYSUCO as a national agricultural corporation. It could import fertilizers. It could support rice and cash crop farmers. It could dominate the agricultural inputs market. But this requires vision and the political will because despite President Ali’s grandiose declaration his plan will go against the bourgeois class that dominates the market for agricultural imports. Some politically-connected persons are also part of this market.
GuySuCo is on life support, which is putting it gently. This has been known for a while now, and it was clear from what has emerged on and off that all was not well. We have heard from the occasional seepages of the ways things are being run inside GuySuCo, that new problems are added to longstanding ones paving the way for further deterioration. In quick order, there have been sharp rebuttals following on the heels of any bad news put into the public domain. It is better to smooth over the wrinkles, and keep up the pretense that all is well, which as all well know can only endure for so long. This is precisely what has now occurred with no other than the President basically saying that it was time to close down the sugar industry and start planting rice and corn and rear livestock.
As one of our writers said previously, GuySuCo’s problems are political, not managerial. Its survival depends on political reform, not just managerial adjustments. It needs visionary leadership at the level of the Board, leadership that sees beyond sugar. The rural economy depends on GuySuCo, the nation depends on its success. Political meddling must end. The corporation’s potential must be unleashed not curtailed.
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Maybe, Guysuco should start planting BEETROOT TO PRODUCE SUGAR.
They already have the sugar factories. Those sugar canes suffering from
malnutrition, they are so skinny looking.
Another crop- cannabis. It is more profitable to sell under restricted regulations.
And, since almost everyone in the country, selling, growing, transporting,
habitual user of the stuff, Guyana will, if not already, have a population of
addicts.