Dear Editor,
Listening to the invited addresses and various comments from the floor at last Friday evening’s Moray House session on the Wales estate closure, has prompted me to now share with the general public a perspective from my own intimate knowledge of the industry going back to the early sixties.
First of all I must preface my remarks by saying I have not read the CoI report as I have been unable to download it, having only received the link to it with the email on the Moray House invitation. I have however been reading excerpts from the CoI and the many letters on the pending closure of Wales estate appearing in the local press. I can intimate that not only have I served the industry for 35 years 1960 to 1995, but that three of the Commissioners ‒ Chairman Vibart Parvatan, Harold Davis Jr and John Piggott ‒ were my sugar colleagues, being either directly or indirectly part of my technical staff during that time. They would have had the benefit of my own technical knowledge and guidance over the years as well as access to personal research documentation and other reports. I can also mention that as part of the contribution from my own agronomic specialization I served over the years on the D P Sankar headed Industrial Relations Com-mittee of GuySuCo as agricultural advisor in union negotiations and arbitration tribunals, on one occasion with Dr Clive Thomas appearing as advocate for the sugar unions.
In the late fifties and early sixties the then agricultural director of Bookers Sugar Estates, Dr Harry Evans, had the foresight to recruit and train local personnel for developing the expertise to deal with the agronomic problems that were peculiar to the Guyana sugar industry and regarded to be of strategic concern.
I was one of those engaged through a Booker cadetship in 1960 to receive university and post-graduate Biometrics training in the UK and elsewhere. I ultimately rose to the position of Diversified Crops and Agricultural Research Executive Director of GuySuCo after reorganizing the Agricultural Research Dept over the years to undertake the developing agronomic challenges in the industry. By the ʼ80s, the then Chairman Harold Davis Sr had recognized that the industry could not survive in its present form with the ever increasing production costs, low world sugar price and the looming loss of the European preferential markets. He therefore in spite of only token support and scepticism from a number of his managers initiated a crop diversification programme in 1984. For our detractors who could not comprehend or conceptualise the strategic importance of the programme, diversified crops was a dirty word and they termed the programme as the ill-conceived “Other Crops” and did their best to talk it down. Some were suspicious of it as unwelcome competition for their own business activities. Inevitably the use of sugar resources to fund the programme was the cause of serious discomfort both inside and outside the industry, and the then government could only provide moral support. That support ended with the conditionality imposed by the World Bank/IMF for national debt forgiveness and sugar rehabilitation funding. Thus the fledgling diversification programme was terminated in the early ʼ90s.
I was part of the industry during its most productive period in the sixties and early seventies when production rose to 371,000 long tons (imperial tons) translated to 377,000 metric tonnes in today’s units. True enough, this can be credited to a number of favourable factors which combined synergistically to produce a record performance.
The whole infrastructure and key agronomic practices of the Guyana sugar industry were developed and hitherto based on abundant, willing and relatively low-cost labour. Field supervision at the different levels was strong , experienced and
knowledgeable and made accountable by formidable management which brooked no half measures, indiscipline or lapses. In the earlier years the availability of such ready labour facilitated the application of appropriate agronomic practices, and most importantly the reaping of produced cane, in spite of the generally unfavourable weather patterns and intractable soils for cane. Over the years with an increasingly enlightened labour force with aggressive union representation, the industry’s labour productivity, commitment and even numbers declined, particularly in locations near urban areas with access to alternative employment. To put it in perspective and bluntly, ‘Massa day done’.
I have had the opportunity and privilege over the years of visiting and studying sugar industries all over the world as part of my training and can fully appreciate that Guyana has serious disadvantages as a cane-growing area. Most sugarcane producing countries, with the exception of Australia, South Africa and the US, still rely on labour for the most part for their field operations, but boast a long and reliable dry season to benefit the vital activities.
Analysis of rainfall data over the years suggested that on the coast there is a fairly regular cycle of predominantly wet years followed by relatively dry years which is correlated, among other factors, with yields and sugar production. Dry years promote good cane ripening and juice quality and provide the ‘opportunity days’ for enhanced tillage and subsequent planting , as well as reaping of the crop in good condition, which is important for the development of the following crop. Guyana is on average a high rainfall geographic area with a wide precipitation range in the sugar belt, from about 70ʺ in the East Berbice estates to 110ʺ on the West Demerara estates. Wales estate falls within that West Demerara ambit, and the injurious effects of heavy rainfall on soil preparation and harvesting in particular, are clearly magnified under those conditions.
During my tenure in agronomic research, the strategy of optimum ratoonage was developed with the implementation of plants and four ratoons policy. This replanting strategy was first facilitated in the seventies by the adequate land preparation time afforded in the drier years of the weather cycle. It is pertinent to add that my statistical analysis of rainfall data linked to soil moisture holding capacities pointed out that notwithstanding total annual precipitation on the coast appeared to be adequate and even excessive for cane cultivation, its distribution as evidenced by accumulated moisture deficits was not ideal for best cane growth and maturation. Flood irrigation in times of drought conditions was a feature in estate cane husbandry, not recognized as the best form of irrigation from an agronomic standpoint, but certainly the least costly. Prudent and disciplined management of the water resources on the coast and on estates enabled irrigation of critical plant fields except in times of extreme drought. Similarly good management of the water conservancies and careful attention to the maintenance of internal and external drains in the cultivation ensured that flood conditions in times of the high rainfall cycle were minimized.
Unfortunately the advent of a wet cycle in the early eighties coincided with the period in the industry’s history when everything began to go wrong. Progressive labour unrest for better wages and conditions, unavailability of funds for vital rehabilitation, even the absence of routine maintenance and the increasing exit of skills coupled with the serious decline of work standards in the field, all contributed to the decline in sugar fortunes.
During the early eighties, by a process of field mechanization serious attempts were initiated to deal with the exodus of willing and amenable labour, which like every new untried activity required at least some experimentation. However mechanization is not only capital intensive but has limited application for the most part in our high rainfall and poor draining heavy clays.
This brings us to the belated conclusion that it would not be acceptable to proponents of the perpetuation of the industry in this form, that in the long run rice cultivation is more appropriate to the coasts of Guyana than sugar cane. It was distinctly easier to fully mechanise rice cultivation in all its activities from planting to harvesting, than would ever be possible for cane. That was the way to go for rice farming in the light of increasing labour costs, availability and effectiveness. Youths as expected will be progressively reluctant to embark on a career in perceived low remuneration manual farming, when there are less onerous alternatives.
Leaving general considerations aside and returning to the specific issues of Wales, I can state that from agronomic studies and research done there in my time on the estate’s soils ranging from the aluminium toxic heavy clays to the organic pegasse soil type, they clearly showed that there were benefits from intensive hand work (forking and shovel work) and fertiliser additives (phosphate lime) which have now become costly in today’s context and can be best done only during favourable weather. Additionally, the high rainfall in West Demerara will generally prohibit effective mechanical operations at the best of times. The inability to sustain these costly soil amelioration operations has over time reduced sugar yields, consequently progressively affecting the economic and financial viability of the estate.
With the dwindling high price sugar markets in the late ʼ80s/early ʼ90s, crop diversification became an option then as it is now, once the necessary applied research could indicate the specific directions to pursue. With the limited capability of NARI to provide then, the industry took on that responsibility on a trial and error basis as a start-up. A citrus project was initiated at Uitvulgt and a dairy unit at Versailles. I am aware that NARI is more capable now and can offer some support, but funding for more specific locational research may have to be accessed from international agencies or friendly governments.
With the pending closure of the Wales estate some thoughts for the future may be considered:
From a crop diversification perspective the Canal Polder area adjacent to Wales is known for its fruit, vegetables and ground provision potential and already supplies the local market and exports to a small extent. From national economic considerations the challenge is to upgrade this potential for a bigger export market by a combination of labour intensive and mechanized production initiatives. Cut flowers is also a potential for the export market as I know that heliconias and some lilies grow well on the organic soils in the West Demerara area. The development of some non-traditional fruit for export may be considered, such as carambola and passion fruit as is done in other countries. I have been on study tours of extensive papaw, citrus and mango orchards in Belize providing for both fresh and processed value-added exports to North America, and visited a passion fruit farm in Brazil from which the processed juice was being exported to the EU. I also knew there was a time when fresh cut flowers and carambola were exported from the African continent to the UK market. There may be markets for these products in North America. The key to such export developments is aggressive marketing and reliable, low cost, efficient air freight services to the North American markets, either directly or through Central America with road transport thereon.
With respect to privatization of the cultivation only, leaving the factory to fend for itself, I would be wary of any expressed cane farmers’ confidence to be able to sustain viable field operations from their own resources, or from proceeds received from less than optimum sugar recoveries from an ailing factory. Factory closure and transfer of cane and labour to Uitvlugt is an option the economics of which is at best dubious as it would entail accounting for Wales’ substantive cane and labour establishments. In any event cane farmers’ utilization of retrenched labour from a closed Wales estate may face similar problems with entrenched attitudes from the current pool of workers who may need to be cycled from cane farm unit to unit to meet labour requirements, a prospect not without its difficulties. I do hope for the sake of renewed fortunes in peasant cane-farming that I can be proved wrong in my assessment of the work culture, and that there will be a new ethic to field work standards.
I do agree that the closure of Wales estate either now or in the near future will result in severe social hardship for many families in the West Demerara area, and I certainly support any reasonable arrangements to mitigate the immediate effects. However, the net costs of continuing with sugar operations at Wales in the short to medium term will need to be carefully weighed against the combined costs of paying compensation and investing in alternative long term activities. In all of this, early attention and consideration must be given to the possible fate of other estates, and benefiting from the lessons that will be developed and applicable from these experiences. I have no doubt that with the lesser rainfall and superior soil advantages enjoyed by the more easterly located estates, sugarcane agriculture can continue in some form, and that the returns from sugar production will make it worthwhile.
These then are my considered views based on personal experience and knowledge of over 35 years in the industry and interfacing with all its aspects.
Yours faithfully,
Fritz C McLean
