Guyana Tractor and Equipment Limited (GUYTAC) was on Monday handed three contracts totalling over $356 million for the supply of hydraulic excavators to complete much-needed drainage works for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
The contracts were signed at the Ministry of Agriculture in Georgetown. The excavators are required for the rehabilitation of drainage and irrigation channels at all of the sugar estate locations, including the channels passing through nearby residential communities.
Those works also include the rebuilding of the surrounding perimeter dams at the Albion Estate in Berbice, which took a hard hit when the May-June rains came.
Some $900 million in cane crops at the Albion Estate were damaged due to the high levels of flooding experienced. The prognosis at the Estate did not bode well for the industry as it stands to lose 80% of the first crop for 2022.
The heavy rainfall was also compounded by the overflowing Canje Creek, the Canje Catchment area, and the Boerasirie Conservancy. Additionally, GuySuCo also had to deal with flood-affected farmers breaching impolderments in the cane fields in an effort to drain their own farmlands.
As such, much work needs to be completed.
The machines will also be utilised for the maintenance of infrastructure across the estates’ dams, bridges and aqueducts that form part of the essential requirement for the field operations.
