Dear Editor,
Sugarcane is, in essence, a high-performance plant. It is highly efficient at converting and storing energy from the sun and continues to produce huge amounts of biomass and sucrose for much of the year if it has the right level of warmth, water, and nutrients. Yet industry insiders claim that they cannot get support from the Agriculture Director, Mr. Vishnu Panday, to access the right amount of nutrients at the right time to deliver the level of yields and quality of canes to maximise sugar production.
Since August 2024, laboratory evidence from within the industry has confirmed that the degradation of soil fertility is now real. The causation of this situation is not the drought that was present at the front end of the year or the usual excuses of the workers and the weather; all have been more favourable in this second crop of 2024 as compared to the same period in 2023. Yet in 2023, the industry produced 60,000 tons of sugar and is only set to produce 44,000 tons in 2024. The failures in this second crop of 2024 according to the insiders are down to two factors – lack of agricultural and factory leadership and direct political interference by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Since August 2024, the industry faced a deep shortage of the main nutrients – Urea, Muriate of Potash (MoP) , Sulphate of Ammonia (SA) and Diammonium Phosphate (DAP). This was mainly as a result of the poor planning by the agricultural leadership at GuySuCo and this situation was confirmed by the main workers union (GAWU) in their statement to the public on October 28, 2024.
Only after GAWU spoke up, did some Urea come to the industry, but any agriculture strategist will know that a balanced fertilizer strategy is essential to properly replenish the soil and support the growth of the sugarcane. Expertise is lacking in the Office of the Agriculture Director of GuySuCo and whoever is the office holder in that department should be fired and if they have any dignity left – resign in shame for letting down the 8,000 sugar workers who depend on the industry. That is 8,000 families who have great uncertainty imported into their lives because little “milkmen” want to play God with their future, with full support from their political partners.
Notwithstanding the statement from GAWU, there is still a shortage of MoP and SA in the industry at the date of this letter. How can you run a sugarcane industry without the right amount of nutrients available to the Estate Managers at the right time? It is agriculture madness.
The main value of sugarcane comes from one quality aspect: sugar content. To produce high sugar content, potassium must be available. Potassium is essential in many aspects of plant development but, as it facilitates many biochemical and physiological processes, it is particularly important in carbon assimilation, sugar production, and accumulation of sucrose within the cane plant. In Guyana, we may not be able to control the local weather patterns but we can contribute to the sugar crop’s nutrition and provide the right nutrient balance, especially the right levels of potassium, to ensure it grows and yields as well as possible. This is not happening in GuySuCo in this second crop of 2024 and I wonder why, since the records will show that the Government of Guyana provided Mr. Paul Cheong as CEO and his team with some $15 billion in 2024 as support cash to procure the essentials needs of the industry. Where have all this cash gone in 2024 that it cannot buy MoP (potassium) or SA (ammonia)?
As a scientist, I was told that GuySuCo has evidence to show that when the right amount of fertilizer is applied at the right time to the plant, they can safely expect a 15% to 18% improvement in the yields. An industry insider told me that even without this fertilizer, GuySuCo will end up with about 800,000 tons of standing crop cane that is qualified to be harvested in 2024. With timely fertilizer application, that figure would have bumped up, conservatively, to about 900,000 tons of cane that could have been harvested in 2024. With a conservative TCTS conversion rate in the factory of 12, this 900,000 tons of standing crop cane should generate, about 75,000 tons of sugar. But the same insider told me that as of November 10, 2024, only 37,000 tons of sugar were produced and with the rain upon us, as I said before, not more than 44,000 tons of sugar will be produced and supplied to the market by GuySuCo for 2024.
So the failure to buy and apply these fertilizers on time has caused a loss of some 8,000 tons of sugar which at world prices translates to a loss of $1,100 million Guyana dollars. How much fertilizer was needed, I was advised some $300 million worth of fertilisers. If I ask the man running the corner shop if he will spend $300 to make $1,100, any common entrance student can provide you with the correct answer. However, the men and women who run the Board and the Management of GuySuCo urgently needs help from this common entrance student.
In conclusion, the scientist in me want to speak, but the common sense in me predominates – the return on nutrient investment is significant. GuySuCo could have gotten additional value per hectare from the potassium-enriched fertilizer strategy, but that was if there were any MoP in the fertilizer bonds in the sugar industry. It is time for heads to roll in the agricultural leadership at GuySuCo. As to political interference, I cannot speak to it since that is not my forte, I prefer to stick with the sciences.
Sincerely,
Anthony Francis
