Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha reaffirmed that the ongoing mechanisation of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) will not result in the dismissal of workers.
The minister gave the assurance on Tuesday while addressing the Committee of Supply during the second day of the Consideration of Estimates for the 2026 National Budget at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“With mechanisation, no one will lose their job. This Government does not dismiss and send home people. Over the next five years, we are moving to mechanise, and that will fill the gap. No one will go home,” Mustapha said.
He explained that the move toward mechanisation is intended to address the labour shortage affecting GUYSUCO and other sectors across the country.
“GUYSUCO is suffering from serious problems in terms of labour; there is a lot of labour shortage, and this here will fill the gap to ensure that we have enough and regular labour coming out of GUYSUCO for production,” the Minister told the Committee.
Minister Mustapha also pointed out that sugar workers continue to benefit from extensive training and upskilling opportunities through GUYSUCO and national programmes.
“We have robust training programmes in this country. There is the GUYSUCO Training School, they train [workers in] different disciplines… The Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning has the BIT programme and hundreds of GUYSUCO workers are trained there to operate heavy-duty machinery,” he said.
The minister noted that such training opens broader employment opportunities for sugar workers, many of whom move on to other areas of work, contributing to the labour shortfall within the sugar industry.
“That is the reason that these people are being trained; and they are not only working for GUYSUCO, but are not waiting for GUYSUCO’s mechanisation to come [on-stream] for a machine to [use]. That is why there are more opportunities that exist in Guyana, and people have more places to go and work,” the minister explained.
He further explained that as more workers transition into different fields, mechanisation will help ensure that production at GUYSUCO remains stable.
“With these trainings taking place, spaces are being created, and that is why we are mechanising GUYSUCO to take over these spaces that will be created when people fully develop themselves and train themselves to go into other disciplines,” Minister Mustapha said.