Dear Editor,

AGRICULTURE Month is here, and it is time to reflect on the tremendous achievements and steady progress the Agriculture Sector has made under this PPP/C Government under the astute and competent leadership of Zulfikar Mustapha, Minister of Agriculture.
To fully appreciate this accomplishment, it is imperative that we analyse what took place during the coalition’s term in office, which saw the willfully planned and systematic destruction of the sector.
They slashed the budgetary allocation each year, ensuring under-capitalisation of the sector which hindered rehabilitation as well as growth.

It must be recalled that the budgetary allocation in 2018 was slashed by $1.351 billion, after the closure of four grinding sugar estates. One would expect that the ‘savings’ from the closure would have been utilised to rehabilitate and capitalise the remaining estates or the other sub-sectors.
But this was wishful thinking, since the malevolent intention was complete closure of GuySuCo. In addition, the coalition had promised not to close any of the estates.

In 2015, at the Arthur Convention Centre, the ‘champion’ of the sugar workers, Moses Nagamootoo uttered these words: “The focus is to make sugar work. We have too many workers who stand to lose with the collapse of the industry. This new government will not allow sugar to sink.”
This was hypocrisy at its best. As early as 2013, he had called GuySuCo “a black hole”, but he went further in November 2016, a year after his proclamation at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, when he said sugar workers were deemed raiders of the Treasury. “Bailing out GuySuCo is like raiding the Treasury,” he said.

Minister Mustapha’s words will reverberate in the minds of Guyanese for a long time to come, when he profoundly declared to the coalition in Parliament that sugar had “lost its taste” under the APNU+AFC Administration, but the sweetness of sugar will return under the PPP/C Government.
His words came to pass as his government did mission impossible by reopening the Rose Hall Estate, whilst the others are a work-in-progress with various developmental options.
Moreover, the coalition deemed the rice industry, and by extension the other crops, livestock and fishing to be private business. New lands should have been opened for rice farming and other crops, and the cost of machinery, fertilisers and chemicals be subsidised to assist farmers who were at their wits end to produce to eke out a living.

Instead, in its insane haste to refill the empty coffers, which were quickly being squandered, the coalition increased D&I charges, and implemented VAT on agricultural machinery and equipment.
Drainage and Irrigation infrastructure fell apart rapidly and access dams became canals and the farmers were left to fend for themselves. This government pressed the ‘undo’ button and the rice industry is growing by leaps and bounds likewise all the other sub-sectors.
In September 2020, the Minister of Agriculture made a commitment when he boldly declared that, in the next five years will see the implementation of measures to promote a diversified agriculture-based economy; create more jobs and increase the income of farmers.

He emphasised that this will be done by modernising and upgrading infrastructure, strengthening support services, robust marketing systems at local and international levels and increasing Guyana’s market share. All of these were not empty rhetoric and it came to pass and much more was achieved.
The coalition had been, for their entire term in office, piloting Guyana on the course of the oil curse which would have resulted by their woeful and calculated neglect of the sector compounded by their gross incompetence.

Undoubtedly, absolute revitalisation of the agriculture sector began in 2020 and is marked by the renewed understanding and recommitment to the fundamental role of agriculture in the nation’s developmental process by this government, and skillfully driven by the most competent Agriculture Minister ever.
In conclusion, the great achievements of this sector must be applauded vociferously by all Guyanese every single day having overcome the brutal decimation engineered by the APNU/AFC.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf