Strong administrative control over food stuff was exercised at a government level, as well as control over much of the farming mechanisms was asserted through the applied co-operative system under the concept of paramountcy of the party where the co-operative laws were changed to suit the ideals of the government, while the utilisation of the GMC (Guyana Marketing Corporation) and the KSI (Knowledge Sharing Institute) marketing centers gave the government a form of absolute control over almost all sources of food.

Despite his military expansionism and party policies to elevate the country’s Blacks, such as the building of housing schemes, many at critical points in being near Indian-populated villages (e.g., Samantha Point near Grove, EBD), hardship prevailed. In 1977, the PPP was able to call a strike along the sugar belt, and another massive strike even began in Linden (names after Burnham), a PNC stronghold. Dissension began to pervade the society as food shortages became commonplace. Burnham called upon Guyanese to consume what is produced locally; the ranks within the party are made to recite lines advocating national self-sufficiency by poet, Kahlil Gibran; “Pity a nation that wears a cloth it does not weave…” The early eighties brought an official ban on numerous imported items like wheaten flour, which Burnham replaced by rice-flour (milled rice). Bread was interpreted as an “imperialist” food. Traditional food outlets (shops) were barred from selling food items and instead, the government established a series of food distribution centers called Knowledge Sharing Institute (KSI).