Unsettled weather has not been a factor in the “precipitate” decline in cane yields and sugar output, rather it has been a case of a shortage of cash and poor agricultural practices.
These are among the key findings of the Field sub-committee of the Commission of Inquiry into the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). The key recommendation coming from the report is to privatize GuySuCo within three years. The former PPP/C government has often cited poor weather as a reason for the poor performance of GuySuCo.
Compiled by Dr Harold Davis and John Piggott, the three-volume report which was recently tabled in parliament, noted that since 2005 there have been sharp drops in cane yield and sugar output. It said that restricted cash flows and poor credit as a result of high expenditures associated with the Skeldon factory resulted in lower spending on inputs for agriculture. For instance, the report said that a shortage of financing led to the non-availability of fertiliser for over 6,000 hectares after the completion of last year’s first crop.
The report cited a range of unsound agricultural practices for the reduced performance and output. Among these were superficial tillage, planting outside of the recommended planting windows and the late timing of inputs. The fertilising policy also reduced the rates of basal fertiliser which aided “significant yield reductions in the succeeding seasons”. Severe weed infestation in the Demerara Estates was attributed to poor management and the neglect of the cultivation. Furthermore, the report said that the undesirable practice of bring forward cane to meet production targets was also prevalent over the past five years.
In the short-term, the report said that improved production is dependent on sticking to agricultural guidelines on the timing of operations and inputs, work quality and training and experience sharing. Increased conversion of fields for mechanisation, flood fallowing on suitable fields, rehabilitation of seed nurseries and variety distribution as agreed with the Breeding and Selection Department are other areas.
The report contended that the projected capital expenditure of US$29m for this year is far below the US$102.4m now required to secure the estates’ infrastructure and operations. The report projected that based on inputs and improved management, estate productivity would improve gradually and sustainably to 3.5m tonnes of cane and 300,000 tonnes of sugar by 2020.
Buy cane
Production cost data, the report said, also shows that it would be cheaper for the Wales estate to buy cane from farmers than to grow its own.
“Even with the increased production of cane by 2020 … there would be insufficient cane in West Demerara to satisfy the complete requirement for two factories”, the report said, recommending that a formal analysis be done of the financial implications for the sugar corporation and farmers of transferring all of the Wales cane supply to farmers.
Noting that mechanical loading of hand cut cane has been widely accepted , the report recommended that GuySuCo should work with the union to weed out additional payments for “obstacles and extras” still racked up in the cut and stack process. The report said that the beneficial cost impacts of mechanisation are already being reflected in the Industry Management Accounts. The report posited that transformation of the industry for mechanisation largely depends on the adaptability of management at all levels. It asserted that commercial combine harvesting operations started at Skeldon with several breakdowns and mechanical problems which could have been avoided if the mechanisation support team had not been dissolved.
The report said that Skeldon has also had difficulty in reaping its standing crop because of restricted access to fields and forced harvesting in wet soil for successive seasons. This led to soil compaction and damage to cane stools.
Unreliability of factories has also led to late starts and reduced crop periods. This has led to over-age canes.
“These problems were influenced by inadequate drainage capacity for the expanded area and the fundamental error made from the onset of the programme in which only cursory attention was paid to land levelling”, the report said.
According to the report, in 2015, a 340 Total Pump Management drainage pump was set up by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) on the banks of the Canje to drain the Manarabisi sections of the cultivation. However, the drainage canal to the estate at Sookram’s Cross is still to be finished. The report recommended that GuySuCo pursue the construction of the canal or undertake the task if there is a delay in approval for funding from the NDIA.
Pointing out that mechanically harvested and loaded canes have been a challenge to factories as extraneous matter and excess soli caused major problems with steam generating and processing, the report recommended the appointment of an experienced senior agricultural engineer as mechanisation coordinator.
Since no new commercial variety has been released in the industry since 2008, the report noted that two strains D 9584 and D 98633 which are ready for pre-commercial and factory response evaluations should be used without delay.
To take advantage of the driest weeks of the year, the report proposed that a production schedule from mid-August to the end of April be evaluated.
Production would stop from late December and January but factories would be in a state of readiness for operations as soon as the weather allows.
In brief comments on several other issues which have arisen around sugar, the report said that the current low price of oil and its products work against substituting sugarcane or molasses in favour of ethanol production.
Further, the report said that the production of other crops on an extended scale will not take up the field labour likely to be made redundant from any form of contraction of field operations on any estate.
