Mechanised cane harvesting will expand, drone surveillance will be rolled out and sugar factories will be overhauled under a reform package aimed at shoring up the struggling state-run industry.
The measures, which also include investment in value-added production and stricter management accountability, were outlined by President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Tuesday during the 78th commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs.
About 44 per cent of land managed by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has already been shifted to mechanical harvesting, Ali said, as the corporation grapples with a chronic shortage of cane cutters.
“We know there is an acute shortage of labour. We know that many sugar workers do not want their children to engage in the task of cane cutting. That is why mechanisation is no longer optional. It is necessary,” he said.
GuySuCo is also expanding its use of drones for crop monitoring and the application of fertiliser and chemicals, moves the president said would boost efficiency across the sector.
Ali signalled that changes could be made at the estate level, saying the government’s investments in the industry needed to deliver measurable returns. He said proposals for reinvestment at the Skeldon Estate were under review, alongside plans to bring in additional technical expertise.
“I am not pleased with the failure of the corporation to consistently achieve the production target,” Ali said, adding that he had demanded greater accountability and efficiency from management.
The president also announced retraining and “repositioning” programmes for sugar workers and called on trade unions to take a more direct role in running the industry, including offering them the chance to manage an estate themselves.
“If you would like to take up the mantle of management and take one of the estates and make it a model, we give you that challenge openly,” he told union representatives.
Ali credited his administration’s investment since returning to office in 2020 with keeping the industry alive, saying it would otherwise have collapsed.
The announcement came as Guyana marked the deaths of Lallabagee, Rambarran, Harry, Pooran and Surujballi, five sugar workers killed by colonial police on June 16, 1948, during a struggle for better working conditions and workers’ rights at Enmore, an event widely regarded as a turning point in the country’s labour movement.
