Having grown up in Awendo, Migori county, a Sugar Belt, I am familiar with the challenges that sugarcane farmers and millers go through.
The crop has been the economic backbone of the Western Kenya and Nyanza Sugar Belts dating back more than three decades. Contrary to opinion, that the regions should ditch the crop for others, I believe the industry has immense untapped potential.
This is part of what informed my decision to run for Member of Parliament. I figured that as a legislator, I could do something to improve the lives of sugarcane farmers in my county and other regions as well.
Migori is home to one of the most esteemed sugar firms in the republic – the Sony Sugar Company – which many of my constituents, including farmers, labourers and employees, depend on for their livelihoods.
Sugarcane farming in Kenya supports more than 200,000 small–scale farmers. An additional six million Kenyans derive their livelihoods directly or indirectly from the sugar industry.
Domestic production of sugar saves the country about Sh45 billion in foreign exchange.
However, one cannot fail to notice that sugarcane and table sugar production in 15 counties has significantly declined in the past year, from more than 50,000 tonnes to below 15,000 tonnes owing to a myriad of challenges that face the sector.
These include, but are not limited to, high cost of sugarcane and table sugar production, cane poaching by millers and an absence of a sugar industry agreement binding all growers, millers and other relevant stakeholders.
The industry is crippled by weak legal frameworks and enforcement policies, imports dependency not to mention unregulated duty free imports from non-Comesa countries.
Speaking of weak legal frameworks and policies, the abolition of zoning has created an elephant in the room—poaching. To avoid poaching, millers are forced to harvest immature sugarcane, which has low sucrose content and consequently translates, as earlier mentioned, into low tonnes in production.
Public millers are drowning in debt and are often looking for bailouts to stay afloat, their plants and machines are ageing and they spend millions of shillings on maintenance, not forgetting poor roads and infrastructure.
Consequently, the above woes have resulted in employee layoffs, increase in sugarcane poaching, which has resulted in conflicts, farmers being vulnerable to cane poachers and milling plants have shut down. All this explains the high cost of sugar.
Traditionally, the Kenyan model of sugarcane growing has been where farmers are contracted by milers, given inputs and services on credit, with the miller expecting to harvest the sugarcane from the farmer.
The discourse on privatisation began years ago, when the grand coalition government proposed changes in parastatals. Court cases surrounding the same have led to laxity, which in turn poses the risk of the Western-Nyanza bloc losing out on its mainstay as happened to the cotton industry.
The government, through the State Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture and Food Authority - Sugar Directorate, should consider reintroducing a sugar development fund.
The fund will go a long way in helping millers with rehabilitation, improving infrastructure and sugarcane development. Scrapping the Sugar Development Levy, which offered loans to both farmers and millers to develop sugarcane, has worsened the problem of insufficient raw material.
The government also needs to immediately gazette regulations regarding licensing of sugar factories and compliance requirements. Failure to enforce rules that can shield the industry from saboteurs through unfair competition and ensure each player is restricted to their role makes one muse at whether the powers that be understand the magnitude of the issues that face the industry.
The government further needs to revive the Sugar Tribunal for contract dispute resolutions to save millers and farmers the millions of shillings spent in court cases. Lastly, clarify the role of the AFA and the county governments in licensing sugar production.