AS the elections campaign warms up, the sugar industry is again taking centre-stage, with President David Granger assuring the nation that his government will return the industry to profitability.

According to the Guyanese Head of State, who is seeking re-election at the March 2 polls, the industry was on the verge of collapse when the APNU+AFC Coalition took office. The President constituted a Commission of Inquiry into the crippled industry, and, during 2017-2018, it merged the estates. Some 10,000 out of the 16,000 workers were retained at the Blairmont, Albion-Rose Hall and Uitvlugt-Wales Estates and factories.

The redundant workers were paid some $6 billion, and many of them were offered jobs at the merged estates, or in other operations in the agricultural sector. Now, President Granger has taken to his rallies in Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo an assurance that former sugar workers will be given plots of land in the sugar belt for agriculture, commercial and domestic use.

“I know the pain the sugar workers feel,” he revealed, and promised to “protect the livelihoods of the workers who are no longer working in the sugar industry”.
At its peak, the industry had employed close to 30,000 workers, but was forced to cut back over the years. Under the former PPP government, some 5,000 sugar workers were made redundant between 1992 and 2015 due to the closure of the estates, notably those at Diamond and LBI.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has also been looking at the sugar industry, this time on a note of optimism. Writing in his weekly column, My Turn, under the title “Crops and Cash”, he welcomed as “soothing to the ears” the announcement by President Granger that State lands would be given to former sugar workers for crops and housing, and that cash transfers from oil revenues would be made to help in the education of the nation’s schoolchildren.

“The opening up of lands to former sugar workers augurs well for our country. At a time when we have started to produce oil, we should also boost agriculture, fishing and livestock so that Guyana will have a balanced development based on fuel and food,” the Prime Minister, a veteran journalist, wrote.

He added that a new impetus would be given to the quest of the Guyanese people for ‘the good life’, with assurances of more crops from former sugar fields, and meaningful cash transfers for our children’s education.

At this point, we ask what contribution is the largest sugar union, GAWU, prepared to make to help secure the livelihoods of the sugar workers.

With a reported $30M raked in from union dues, GAWU’s contribution share ought to be unconditional and substantial to any ameliorative strategy that will give substance to the future of the affected workers. Finally, sugar workers in the East Berbice-Corentyne region and elsewhere, should begin to ask serious questions of the PPP’s leaders, and those of their unions, as to how their management of the affairs of their industry has led to the very sad state it has become. This is the principal challenge for all sugar workers.

The Coalition Government, he noted, has been cautious about making promises that cannot be delivered in the face of rising expectations. He reminded farmers that the APNU+AFC had promised to find markets for their rice and paddy, and it did. “Guyana today sells to some 35 countries, and though it has produced in excess of one million tonnes of paddy last year, unless new lands are brought into rice production, it is likely that we would be unable to supply these markets. It is in this context that the announcement by the President would result in rice production being given a further boost on lands in the sugar belt that would be given to former sugar workers,” the Prime Minister said.