By Alva Solomon

A GROUP of West Bank Demerara (WBD) private cane farmers are desirous of approaching the Government with plans to operate the Wales Sugar Estate, even as they flayed the former PPP administration for mismanaging the estate, leading to its present parlous state.The group, which comprises eight cooperatives from the area with some 500 to 700 members, met on Tuesday at Bel Vue, WBD to discuss its proposal. Its members’ plans include cultivating the land and operating the factory.

Private Cane farmer Deodat Deokenanan making a point during the meeting yesterday afternoon

Sam Naik, a private farmer who represents the cane farmers from the Canal Number Two Co-op Society, told the meeting that the farmers have been supplying approximately half of the volume of cane which has been utilised by the Wales Estate. He said ferrying cane to the Uitvlugt Estate on the West Coast of Demerara may be difficult in light of the Government’s plans to merge the two factories. He said the farmers have been examining all avenues which can be explored by the authorities, and noted that the Government, being a concerned one, can examine the issue of cultivation at the estate and production through the farmers’ contribution.

“I think the good historian that the President is, he can consider our plans”, Naik added. He said the groups met last Thursday among themselves, and the consensus taken at that meeting led them to take the position of making a proposal to run the factory on their own. He said their proposal may not be the only way forward for the estate, “but all we are saying (is that) we are able to keep the estate alive, and we know somebody will listen to us”.

Major blunders

Farmer Deodat Deokenanan, Chairman of the Bel Vue Marketing Co-op Society, bluntly declared that the previous administration had made “major blunders” in managing the sugar industry, and some of those blunders cannot be corrected. He commended the present administration for its work in the sector thus far, noting that although less than a year in office, the Government has been able to find the faults affecting the sugar industry.

He said the issue of the Wales Sugar Estate “is not about politics”, but about the daily lives of persons, and he added that his co-op society has been producing 15,000 tonnes of cane annually from the 700 acres of land cultivated by the society. “We are asking the Government to run the factory and give the farmers the land and time to operate the factory”, Deokenanan said. He said the private farmers have been very productive over the years, and he called on the authorities to consider the farmers’ proposal.

Farmer Derick Venture said the group has written President David Granger, requesting a meeting with the Head of State to discuss its members’ plans. He said the farmers are requesting to be allowed a two-year period to cultivate the estate, with the setting up of a board among the proposals. The board can comprise farmers and members of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and would be responsible for managing the factory and cultivation during a transition period.

He said that during this period the group proposes to request funding to operate the factory, and he noted that more details can be ironed out if the group’s request is acceded to.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Harrinarine Deokenanan, interacts with the private cane farmers at yesterday’s meeting

Venture said the private farmers have been contributing some 60% to 70% of canes to the estate, and while the group understands the position taken by GuySuCo and the administration for its reasons to close the factory, the moving of canes to and from the area to the Uitvlugt Estate may be costly. He said the move will involve moving canes from the tractors to punts, and vice versa when the stalks arrive on the West Coast.

Cladius Charles of the Free and Easy Cane Farmers Society told the meeting that the farmers have the ability to grow canes and operate the Wales factory with initial assistance from the Government. ”So I would like to ask the Government to give us a chance to manage this factory and cultivation,” Charles said.

Last month, the Government announced that it was unable to finance the operations of the Wales Sugar Factory. Government said that to continue diverting funds from the industry to keep Wales factory afloat would jeopardise the industry. Among the steps announced in light of the plans to close the factory, the Government informed through the Ministry of Agriculture, further land preparation and planting will not continue at the estate, and as the estate’s cultivation is harvested, the land would be retired and held for other diversification ventures.

The Wales factory would operate throughout 2016, milling both the estate’s and farmers’ canes, with final closure at the end of the 2nd crop this year. It addition, with effect from 2017, the Government said, farmers’ canes will be milled at the Uitvlugt factory; and during this year, the routing of the farmers’ canes to Uitvlugt would be determined to ensure the least additional cost.

Agricultural workers at Wales will be absorbed by Uitvlugt up to the extent of suitable vacancies on that location, the administration announced.