Latest update March 26th, 2026 12:30 AM
PPP to continue investing in failing GUYSUCO in second term
…manifesto unveils plans for rice
Kaieteur News – The Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has plans to continue pumping money into the failing Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) if given a second term, President Irfaan Ali has revealed.
At the launch of the party’s manifesto on Monday, Ali told the audience that the government “will continue to support the sugar industry, because we know with the plan that we have, it is going to be viable, and it is too integrated in our economy for us to abandon it.”
The party plans to resuscitate the sugar industry, promising to reopen closed estates and “re-employing over 4,000 persons.”
In its manifesto, the party highlighted that the previous administration left the sugar industry in decay. However, efforts to restore it, modernising and diversifying its operations have already begun.
“With mechanisation advancing at several estates, a packaging plant at Albion nearing completion, and ethanol feasibility studies ongoing. Over the next five years, we will ensure the sugar industry remains open and sugar workers remain employed, continue to convert our fields for strategic mechanisation, modernise our factories, and invest in value-added production such as packaged refined, and specialty sugars, position GUYSUCO as a hub for rural economic development, and convert land into high-yielding, high value productive activity, including through co-investment options,” the document said.
More on its plans for the agricultural sector, the PPP will invest heavily in drainage and irrigation, with plans to finish the “Hope-like” canals. All of this is critical for the rice industry and the entire agricultural sector at large.
It will also be, “providing farmers with fertiliser and seed paddy assistance along with planting materials and breeding stock (while) restoring the zero-rated status previously extended to heavy equipment for agriculture, mining, and forestry.”
More specifically on rice, the PPP is promising that, over the next five years, they will be bringing additional acreage for rice production on stream especially in Regions Two and Six, as well as expand seed facilities in Regions Two, Three and Four.
If given a second term in office the PPP will also “facilitate the establishment of domestic fertiliser production using our gas resources, which will reduce the cost of fertiliser to farmers, organise rice producing clusters in key areas and equip these with critical machinery, including a tractor and combine harvester, to be managed collectively by farmers, and enhance storage capacity, with the establishment of climate-controlled storage hubs in Regions Two, Three, Five, and Six.”
Additionally, the party is promising to work way more aggressively internationally to secure lucrative markets for the country’s paddy and rice, ensuring that farmers and millers alike are able to sell their increased output.
It will also promote “the development and marketing of value-added rice-based products, including rice noodles and fortified cereals to facilitate more markets and higher margins for millers and farmers, and roll out the first ever crop insurance facility for rice farmers to help build resilience.”
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