Promising to be a “field” minister who will be accessible to farmers countrywide, newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha says that his government will relentlessly pursue its manifesto promise of reopening shuttered sugar estates and a priority will be completing an assessment of the sugar sector to see how this can be achieved as soon as possible.
“I am a field man. Whenever I have to function, I go out in the field all the time. I will not be a Minister of Agriculture behind the desk. Agriculture is done in the fields, not in an office,” Mustapha told Stabroek News in an interview shortly after being sworn in on Wednesday.
His comments can be seen as an indirect swipe at his predecessor in the former government, who faced criticism for his management of the sector.
Mustapha noted the closure of four sugar estates and the layoff of also almost 7,500 persons as a result. “In our manifesto, we have made certain commitments and promises and I am very optimistic and I’m hoping that we can implement those commitments and promises,” he said.
The David Granger-led APNU+AFC government closed the Wales, Enmore, Skeldon and Rose Hall estates as part of what it said were plans to turn around the struggling sugar industry. It faced severe criticism for effecting the plans with little notice to workers, some of whom had to wait more than half a year for their full severance payouts.
Mustapha explained that an assessment will be done as he noted the effects of COVID-19. “…Right now, you have a pandemic in the country and the world reality is different. But we are committed to these promises that we have in our manifesto,” he said.
Action plan
Mustapha explained that the assessment would inform an action plan for the new president with recommendations that can, in the short term, ease the difficulties facing farmers until a budget is passed and more funds are available for the sector.
“We are committed to our manifesto promises and that includes sugar workers, cash crop farmers, rice producers, among others. But, as I said, the manifesto promises are there and we will try to fulfil it as much as possible… I have to do a technical assessment first of all before I put out an action plan. So, after that [assessment], we can come up with a plan of action and we can put forward that. We are committed to those promises and I know over time we will implement those promises we have made,” he stressed.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), which will have a representative on the team that will conduct the assessment, says that it will hold government to its promises. “I don’t see the process being a long bureaucratic one lasting for months and months. President Ali had spoken to us and said he wants a committee and GAWU to talk about sugar, everything about sugar. It includes the estates that were closed and to set a plan,” GAWU representative Seepaul Narine told Stabroek News yesterday when contacted. “We will be part of the committee that will take the process forward. And from what the president told us, he is looking at like a month to get a report from the committee. So we will wait and let the process take its course,” he added.
While campaigning as the presidential candidate for the PPP/C, Ali had said that save for the Wales, West Bank of Demerara estate, where sugar cultivation has been discontinued and the infrastructure dismantled and lands sold, a PPP/C government would ensure the estates closed by the APNU+AFC government are back up, running efficiently and turning a profit.
Economic life
In relation to Wales, he said a PPP/C government would pursue areas of diversification that would bring back the jobs lost, expand employment opportunities, and re-create wealth in this community. “We intend to bring back economic life to the businesses, specifically, and the community of Wales more generally. Additionally, we will support this community and families of the workers of the Wales estate, through targeted interventions during this transitional phase,” he added.
It was in January of last year that Ali had first made a public pledge to reopen the estates. His promise had come in for strong criticisms from members of the then government, with APNU+AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan saying that it was a ploy to play on the emotions of voters in the sugar belt and those that lost jobs when the estates were closed by government.
Ramjattan had told this newspaper that the PPP/C needs to be honest with the public and explain that the sugar industry was not sustainable when it was still in office and was a huge financial burden on the economy because of mismanagement.
“They need to tell this country about the true story of sugar and how the global prices affected us here. They need to say how much monies they collected from the EU [European Union] to cushion the effects of those fallen global market prices and put in a plan to cater for all of that but wasted it on Skeldon and did other things that has seen us the way we are today,” Ramjattan had said.
But Ali maintained that the PPP/C’s position on sugar is not a political but human one, where the lives of persons are bettered and the suffering endured by thousands can be alleviated.
It was why he said that under his government, everything possible would be done to resuscitate the sugar sector and reopen three shuttered estates.
He had said that a more detailed plan for sugar would have been revealed in the party’s updated manifesto, which was never published.
Aside from sugar, Mustapha said that he has a holistic development plan for the agriculture sector that sees food security for this country as a top priority and it is why he plans to have the Food Security bill revamped and tabled as one of the first pieces of legislation for the National Assembly.
While Guyana is set to rake in the most revenue from the oil and gas sector, Mustapha said that a diversified economy was one which his government plans to build and agriculture has a leading role.
“Agriculture is a very important sector in our country. As a matter of fact, it is the bedrock of our country, and when agriculture is in a crisis, the country is in a crisis. I know over the last five years many farmers have been suffering because the cost of production has increased tremendously and there was not sufficient market for farmer’s produce. It is my hope that immediately we can address this,” he said.
“Food security will be one of the main focuses of the new administration. Although we are an oil producing country, our base, our economy will continue to be agriculture. We have the Food Security Bill that has been in the parliament for the longest while and that will be pursued. We will have to revamp it because it has been there for a while and that bill will lay down the statutory framework to take the agriculture sector into the future,” he said.
