TWENTY-FIVE senior personnel from the four sugar estates across the country are currently benefitting from a two-day workshop aimed at preventing rodent infestations in sugarcane fields and estates across Guyana.
The two-day workshop began on Tuesday at the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) agriculture research centre in La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

According to head of the Agriculture Research Centre, Ravindra Persaud, GuySuCo is partnering with the private company, Pest Control Supplies, to conduct the rodent management training for the senior staff at the estates.

The senior personnel, he said, include agriculture managers, superintendents, cultivation managers and agronomists.
Persaud told the Guyana Chronicle that rodents are major pests to sugar cane and can be devastating to the crop’s production.

“Far too often, the damage that rodents cause are [sic] underestimated. So, we are paying careful attention to the rodent infestation within our cultivation and we are trying to prevent it from occurring,” he said, adding that at the completion of the workshop, the workers will be better geared and equipped to manage rodents within the fields.

Meanwhile, Director of Business Development at Pest Control Supplies, Raoul Persaud, stated that this is part of the company’s after-sales support which includes offering technical training to GuySuCo’s agronomists and technical managers.

This training, he said, focuses on the features and benefits of rodenticides, how rodenticides work against target rodents and all activities involved in successful rodent control.
“If you don’t control rodents in the sugarcane fields, you end up in a situation whereby you could get significant crop loss, and then, obviously, the crop loss; you lose tons of money,” he said.

He said his company brought Andrej Branc, the Americas Business Manager for Pelgar International, a major supplier of rodenticides to GuySuCo.
Persaud told this newspaper that Branc has vast experience with handling both urban and field rodents as he has worked in North, Central, Latin and South America in rodent control.

He noted further that the two-day training is expected to be highly interactive. The workshop will address issues faced at various estates.
On the second day of the programme, slated for today, Persaud said that it will include field work with personnel venturing to the Blairmont Sugar Estate, where GuySuCo has experienced some challenges with rodent population increases.

He said, “So, we can address that issue in a practical way in the actual field. We might be even testing a new bait formulation.”
Additionally, the director noted that both companies, Pelgar International and Pest Control Supplies, are here to support the corporation with technical support necessary to ensure that operations are successful.