Necessary questions
Today’s column begins with my response to two questions, which several readers have raised with me, privately. First, what lessons can be learnt from the information on GuySuCo’s overall performance indicator (tonnes sugar per hectare) provided in last week’s column? One key lesson is that compared to the performance as far back as 1960, when the indicator was 8.4 tonnes sugar per hectare, overall, the past two decades have witnessed a marked deterioration in performance. Thus, for the two most recent years for which I have data (2008-9), the average yield was only 4.8 tonnes sugar per hectare, that is, over 40 per cent lower than in 1960! Another lesson is that there has been relative stability of sugar yields at the reduced level of the 1990s and 2000s. Thus, the mean for these two decades was 5.64 and 5.91 tonnes, respectively. Thirdly, the data also reveal that there is a distinctly better performance for the Berbice-based sugar factories and estates than for those situated in Demerara.
As readers already know, in general, the agro-climatic features of Guyana’s coast support robust sugar cultivation. Sugar cane is also one of the hardiest commercial crops. Sugar cultivation is entirely located along the low-lying coast, where it is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the seawall, and the cane lands are intensively drained and irrigated through a complex network of canals, drains and other waterways, supported with widely distributed sluices and mechanical pumps. Parenthetically, it should be remembered that in Guyana sugar cane is transported principally on the waterways and not by road or rail, as is done in most other sugar cane cultivation lands around the world.
The second question that has been raised is: what are the main factors responsible for the lower yields over the past two decades? The answer to this is that there are many factors. However, for the purposes of this column I will highlight three of these. One is that the factories are aged, and I would say, have already out-lived their efficient lives. This consideration puts a very heavy premium on regular maintenance and speedy repairs, when equipment invariably breaks down. The ready availability of spares is also vital, but due to cost, in practice this has not always been the case.
Second, unplanned cane shortages have all too frequently interrupted grinding in the factories. These cane shortages are due to a range of considerations, including weather events, strikes, and other interruptions in labour supply on the estates.
The third factor I would stress is the poor quality of canes supplied to the factories. This refers not only to cane supplied with too much trash and mud on it, but also cane with poor sucrose content. The latter factor is related to 1) poor varieties of sugar cane being planted and 2) weak cultivation practices, especially unacceptable rates of replanting the cane and generally poor ratooning practices.
The general consequence of all the above considerations is that there is too much stop-go and intermittent grinding operations in GuySuCo’s sugar factories.
Private cane-farming
Another, but different factor, which has lowered sugar yields, is that while on average only eight per cent of the sugar cane ground at GuySuCo’s factories comes from private cane farmers, across the estates this varies. Thus the proportion is as high as 30 per cent on the Wales estate. This variation is shown in the table below.
As the table reveals, on the six estates where private farmers’ cane is ground the average yield has been 4.0 tonnes sugar per hectare in 2009. This is below the figure achieved for the overall national sugar yield for 2009 (4.93 tonnes per hectare). The variation between the two counties is noteworthy: for the Berbice estates the mean is 4.1 tonnes sugar per hectare, while for the Demerara estates the similar mean is 3.7 tonnes sugar per hectare.
GuySuCo also reported that in 2009 the yield of sugar cane per hectare ranged from 81.9 tonnes per hectare in Skeldon to less than one-half that amount for Enmore (40.1 tonnes per hectare). Similarly, the total amount of sugar cane produced by private cane farmers totalled approximately 262,000 tonnes in 2009, but ranged from a high of about 104,000 tonnes in Wales to a low of about 3,000 tonnes sugar cane in Enmore. The Berbice estates produced about 126,000 tonnes cane, while the Demerara estates produced 136,000 tonnes of cane.
Skeldon sugar
modernization
This discussion leads directly into the next topic for consideration: an assessment of the Skeldon Sugar Modernization Project (SSMP). As I pointed out last week this is the government and GuySuCo’s principal response to the disastrous rot in the sugar industry portrayed in these columns over the past several weeks.
For the purposes of accuracy and emphasis, there are three crucial preliminary observations, which I need to make about the SSMP, before I proceed with my evaluation of the project. These are:
i. The project has had a far longer gestation period than the average reader might be aware of, even by the snail-pace standards of agricultural projects (over a decade).
ii. The SSMP was intended to lead directly into the subsequent expansion of the Albion estate and the modernization of its sugar factory accompanied with the closure of Rose Hall, although this is hardly mentioned today. Indeed this should have already been accomplished.
iii. While the choice of Skeldon as the starting point for recovery efforts is no doubt largely due to its more favourable agro-climatic considerations, this should not lead us to assume that commercial considerations were the only ones at stake. I believe the option pursued favoured the political choices of the government as well, and therein lies many of the problems which hampered the implementation of the project.
Next week I shall continue with an elaboration of these three items, in turn.
