Dear Editor,
The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) in an advertisement that appeared in the February 21, 2018 Guyana Chronicle invited persons desirous of becoming farmers at Uitvlugt Estate to submit their application. In the ad, the Corporation indicated that redundant workers would be given first preference.
On the surface, the GuySuCo ad seems to be positive but as experience has taught me, the devil always lies in the details. For many workers it is a daunting, if not impossible task to be engaged in cane farming. Many simply lack the wherewithal to undertake the several operations to engender a healthy cane crop. Also, bearing in mind that cane has a one-year growth cycle and then it takes another year, after the farmers cane has been harvested before they are fully paid for the sugar that is had from the canes they produce. Clearly cane farming is out of the ordinary workers reach. Literally, the workers would be starving while the cane is growing and even after too.
The Corporation, for some time now, has been seeking to expand the cane farmer population at Uitvlugt as it reduces the size of the cultivation it is managing. Its thrust in this direction has been generally unsuccessful. In fact, as far as I am aware, many farmers, some who have capital, have done little, if any, work to prepare their plots for canes. This is due largely to the depressed prices the farmers are receiving. However, if the canes farmed are used to produce several products besides sugar and farmers benefit also from the income realised from those activities, the attractiveness of farming would increase and yield the interest the Corporation desires.
I believe the Corporation needs to return to the drawing board.
Yours sincerely,
Liebert Alleyne
