The El Nino phenomenon has had a severe impact on the sugar industry resulting in a reduction in production, the Ministry of Agriculture has disclosed.
A document circulated at a press conference recently at the Ministry, Regent Road, Bourda, said that cane growth was stagnated and irrigation was restricted because of the limited availability of water.
The document said water sent to the factories was very turbid, especially at Enmore and La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara. This had an adverse effect on factory efficiency, it said.
Loaded punts had to be transported to the factory in navigation levels lower than normal.
This caused excessive wear and tear to the punt fleet and it also impacted negatively on burning to grinding intervals, since punts took longer hours to reach the factory.
This resulted in reduced recoveries, it said, and the planting programme as well as the tillage programme had to be curtailed..
To cushion these effects, all intake canals from conservancies that supply navigation water by gravity flow was dammed, and pumps were used to pump directly into the navigation system.
Drainage water was re-circulated back into navigation systems, using all recirculation facilities and several small rice field pumps were hired to assist in the supply of irrigation water.
Sections of the navigation network were cordoned and water was recycled into another.
Planting and land preparation operations were concentrated and accelerated in Berbice where water was more readily available, and resources, both machinery and human, were diverted from Demerara to Berbice to make this a success.
Mild to moderate El Nino is still present across the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Currently, the document said, the weather is transitioning from the prolonged dry period into the primary rainfall season and the potential for periods of organized heavy rains will be more likely over Guyana during May, June and July. The most recent statistical and forecast models indicate there are reasonably high probabilities of normal rainfall during this wet season.
However, there may be periods of high intensity rainfall and surface water excesses should not be crucial until about June onwards.
Hence preparations for periods with high intensity rainfall in the season must be considered.
The Ministry of Agriculture is urging Guyanese to take the necessary steps to mitigate the possible impact of localized flooding driven by occasional high intensity rainfall during the wet season.