The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is grinding its first set of cane sourced from private cane farmers through a land release programme at the Uitvlugt Estate.
Chief Executive Officer Raj Singh told Stabroek News that five farmers were each given 200 hectares for cultivation and the corporation is in talks with two additional farmers to utilise 500 hectares that were recently advertised for cultivation.
He said that calling upon private cane farmers was a way to mitigate the low worker turnout at the West Demerara estate. He also stated that the estate was prepared for enhanced mechanisation and as a result all private cane farmers would need to ensure that they had plans to mechanise the fields. The cost of field conversion would fall on the farmers and not GuySuCo, he added.
Singh called the initiative a trial and stated that since this was the first harvest that would be utilising