GUYSUCO rolling out mechanisation to counter labour shortage – Agri Minister

Last Updated on Sunday, 24 December 2023, 21:58 by Writer

The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has employed 543 new employees at Rose Hall Estate to implement a mechanisation programme as the sugar industry continues to grapple with a labour shortage, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said Tuesday.

He was responding to questions from opposition APNU+AFC parliamentarian, Vinceroy Jordan about why GY$643,690,000 was spent on wages and salaries. “We employed these people because of the mechanisation programme we have started.” he said. He noted that those hired were previously “fired” when the factory was closed in the Rose Hall area.

In reply to opposition APNU+AFC parliamentarian, Khemraj Ramjattan’s query about whether a labour study was conducted to ascertain whether the Rose Hall Estate would be successful “in view of the fact that the young people in that area do not want to cut cane and fetch it to the punts”, Mr Mustapha admitted that there is a labour constraint and he reiterated that mechanisation was the route.

“We know for a fact that some of the people don’t want to go back to cut cane with this labour intensive job and we are not mechanisation and that is why we have studied and we are starting the mechanisation at GuySuCo. We are now bringing in machines that will cut the cane, will load the cane and we are looking to make GuySuCo mechanised and modernised,” he said.

Mr Mustapha said GuySuCo has four mechanised harvesters as well as “many loaders”.

The agriculture minister promised to submit the total operational costs for field and factory at Rose Hall since it was reopened as well as the total wage and salary bills, in response to Mr Jordan’s requests for that information.

With the Rose Hall Estate having produced a mere 1,031 tonnes of sugar, Mr Mustapha said that facility could not have reached the 5,000 tonne target because of abandoned fields and “large forest”. He promised that, “Rose Hall would be one of the most productive estates again in GuySuCo” and already just over 1,000 hectares were under cultivation.

Mr Mustapha said the trend shows that GuySuCo is “taking less and less from the public coffer.” However, in response to questions by Mr Ramjattan about when the Rose Hall Estate would become profitable, he could not give a specific time frame for a financial turnaround.