With the closure of the Wales sugar estate at the end of 2016, 774 private farmers who supplied the factory with cane were also affected and while many have had to find other alternatives to provide for their livelihoods, a few are hanging on and are now supplying the Uitvlugt sugar estate although now, they cultivate less than a quarter of the acreage that they did four years ago.
Some have abandoned the enterprise altogether and have sold off their acres of land, or rented them out. Others have no other choice but to leave them bare, financially unable to engage in cultivation. Meanwhile, those deciding to weather the storm have not only had to cut back on the amount produced, but they have had to cut back on labourers also, forcing those persons to seek jobs elsewhere. On some days, when they have paid enough out of their pockets to keep two or three relatives afloat, they can no longer afford to do so and would have to toil in the farms themselves.
Outside of the financial strains, the weather can be another obstacle. Owing to the unpredictable weather of late, work done on the farms daily is not ‘set in stone’. Farmers may need the rain for the growing of their crops but the rain can be a hindrance for when they spray their fields thinking that they may have a dry spell for a week and the rain falls the next day, the entire exercise has to be done all over again. Rain can also affect the sucrose content.
Their days start at 6am or earlier in the farms. Some return home for lunch before heading back into the fields again at two to get back home in time for sundown. Others spend their entire day labouring in the fields.
Daya Persaud has been a private farmer for thirty years. For the majority of the years, he had been supplying the Wales Estate until the closure at the end of 2016. He once owned acres of cane farm in La Retraite, Belle West, and Endeavour. Today he only plants and harvests a portion of his farm in Endeavour.
Persaud shared that following the closure of the estate he is unable to employ workers to spray, throw manure, and plant his cane, which he now has to do himself. When it comes to harvesting the cane, though he could barely spare the extra dollar, he has no other choice but to hire several workers as the cutting of the cane is too much for him to handle alone.
He explained that when he loads two trailers with 12 tons of cane, he is able to get a ton sugar from it. Uitvlugt sugar estate pays $60,000 per ton of sugar. According to the man he only produces six loads of cane these days, the equivalent of three tons of sugar. Unlike the regular two crops per year that he would have been able to do prior to the closing of the Wales Estate, Persaud only plants one crop annually. “The price for a ton sugar used to be $100,000 then around 2014 they start paying $60,000 and left at that price since. But Wales had still open and people [private farmers] was still supplying the estate with cane because the distance was more short. People did still doing what they had to do but since they move to Uitvlugt, people say it can’t compensate them because of time and money,” said Persaud.
As the breadwinner of his home, he has his two elderly parents, a wife, and children to maintain, but one crop of six loads could never take care of all his expenses. Following the closure of the estate, Persaud noted that since he already had the tractors and trailers, he decided to instead transport cane to Uitvlugt for another private farmer in Canal Number Two as well as other farmers living in Canal Number One. To get to the estate, he drives his trailer through the backdam to Canal Number One where the cane is loaded onto his trailers then he takes another dam leading from Canal Number One to Uitvlugt. The trip takes two hours one way. But while he may have used up a lot of time just getting to the estate, Persaud could find himself waiting several more hours before his trailers are off-loaded, sometimes until midnight.
Sunset
Presently, the crop is not on, so no harvesting of cane is being done. He transports workers from Canal Number Two to Uitvlugt Estate at 4:30 in the mornings with a van he owns. By 6am he prepares to leave for the backdam then returns for the sugar workers at 3pm. His day outside of the house isn’t done until sunset.
“I wish they could open back the estate but that would be (a) big investment for them to do and all since they dismantle the factory and carry away everything to Uitvlugt Estate,” Persaud opined.
Thirty-five years as a cane farmer, Nazim Hussain, a 67-year-old man, has for decades harvested his large cane farms in La Retraite and Endeavour where he lives and while he still plants both farms, it is only a small portion of the farms that are being cultivated now.
Hussain has his trailers and tractors and could transport his own cane but thinks it isn’t feasible and with Daya Persaud living in the same community, he has Persaud making the long trip to the estate. “I have about eight trailers and about three tractors park-up that used to pull cane. Me and my son used to pull [transport] my own cane because I used to produce about two thousand tons of cane a year before Wales Estate close down and now I produce about 300 tons or less. The amount of tons I producing is from two crops a year. Now all my tractor and trailer park up. It rotting there right now,” lamented Hussain.
Prior to the closure of the estate, Hussain employed some twenty workers. Now he does everything on his own. He explained that he doesn’t have to plant as the cane grows on its own having being grown in the same place for decades. Instead, he sprays and adds manure and they grow. “When you plant cane, it give you six, ten, eleven, twelve crops. All depends on how you care it. As soon as the yield run down, you plough and plant again”, he said.
Hussain however, has his logging to fall back on, a trade he has been doing long before the closure of the Wales estate. He supplies utility poles to the Guyana Power and Light Company.
“If the price per ton sugar increase, I can go back in farming because that’s one of my hobbies. Since I was a young man, I have been doing it”, said Hussain.
Gendalal Persaud is another one of the few private farmers who still holds fast to cane farming. He noted that he once owned 10 acres of cane farm in La Retraite, which the buyer has left to become a jungle. He currently farms at another farm situated in Middlesex.
“In 2014, we did getting $104,000 for a ton sugar and now they paying $58,000 to carry the cane all the way to Uitvlugt. Right now we throw fertilizer and spray but the rain fall and we got to throw back fertilizer. I got 20 acres and me uncle got 30 acres but not all is cane”, Gendalal said. During harvesting, he employs five persons but with the crop being out, he can only keep on two labourers.
Some of the land is planted with oranges, cassava, and sweet potatoes. They began planting ground provision in 2017. According to the man, he doesn’t make much of a profit on cassava noting that he sells cassava for $15 and $20 a pound to hucksters. He added that it’s the vendors who buy from him and resell at the market that make the profit.
Orange season
Currently, the orange season is on but orange trees he said takes three years to start bearing. However, though they began bearing, Gendalal picked them out and threw them away. When asked the reason for doing this, the farmer explained that when orange trees are allowed to bear their first fruit, they last as long as four to five years more before they stop bearing, so instead, he picks the fruit off while it is still young which will extend the plant’s lifespan.
Asked if he isn’t harvesting cane presently, what he would have done for the day, he shared that he and his workers weeded, trimmed trees, dug drains and other tasks on the farms. “Sometime whole week, me alone going to the farm because me nah get money to pay the other two workman. Me nah even get money for meself, much less to pay them,” the farmer shared.
He explained that three trailers of cane is the equivalent of 14 tons of cane that produces a ton of sugar. “The last week when Uitvlugt grind off, they tek a hundred and something ton cane to mek one ton sugar. They say something happen to the factory”, said the man. His wife nearby, chimed in that it’s impossible for the factory to use up a 100-plus tons of cane to produce a ton sugar and claimed that something was “fishy”. He noted also, sometimes he waits all day or two days if the factory is broken-down before his trailers are off-loaded.
At the end of a crop, the farmer will harvest some 400 tons of cane that will produce about 30 tons of sugar. Whenever it’s time to harvest, Gendalal shared that he would have to pay his workman $7,500 for the day as they cut, tied and loaded five tons of cane. When it is time to harvest Gendalal takes on five workmen who work seven days a week until they are done harvesting.
“You nah mek no money plus they don’t give you all the money one time. First payment is when you cut the cane, they will give you $40,000 [per ton of sugar]. Second payment they give you $10,000 but instead of giving you the money they [GuySuCo] will give you the manure worth in the money then final payment, they gon give you $8,000 more and by the time they give you, you got to study fuh guh backdam with it, so is like you almost a work free all this time; you ain’t got nothing to get from cane. That’s why I got to sell sweet potato, orange and cassava. Before Wales close down, you get enough money to buy all what you want, not now,” Gendalal said.
In addition the man said, prices for fertilisers and pesticides have gone up and farmers are being paid far less for a ton of sugar. He noted that if his worker sprays the cane and then the rain falls and washes it out, he still has to pay his worker for the job he did then pay him again to redo it.
“It barely ah pay and we got struggle more hard for less money, for lil bit ah money. Most of the time I got to pay workers out of me pocket,” lamented Gendalal.
