Cane Farmers worried over the Sugar industry as COMESA exemption expires in 2012

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-07-21 20:47:00

Bukembe cane famers line up at one of the 22 polling centers to elect their Kenya Sugar Board representatives who will cast their doubts away ahead of the liberalization of the sugar industry. [Photo/ Rosemary Wachiye/ West Fm]

Over 50,000  sugar cane farmers contracted with Nzoia Sugar company  are worried over the status of the  Kenyan sugar industry ahead of the repeal of COMESA safeguard by end of February next year.

They are saying they are bound to lose if the elected representatives won’t lay proper strategic measures to counter the liberalized market.

The farmers want the new leadership to move with speed and come up with strategic measures to counter COMESA market insisting there was no way the price of sugar can be at par with other countries under the coming trade zone owing to the high cost of sugarcane farming and sugar production.

Subsequently, they urge the government to immediately sensitize farmers on the possible ways of dealing with the COMESA market amicably.

Kenya Sugar Board should come up with new marketing policies to ensure there is a ready market for Kenyan sugar elsewhere away from COMESA region.

The sugar sector has been shielded since 2000 when Kenya was allowed to limit duty-free sugar imports to 200,000 tons annually.

Further, farmers said the contract between them and Nzoia Sugar Company be renewed saying the current contract confines the factory alone.

‘’We want the contract reviewed so that we have the freedom to sale our cane to any factory including private millers,’’ they asserted.

Farmers also appealed to the coming leadership to address with great concern the issue of payment as normally they are supposed to be paid within one week after delivery at factory but this has never been the case.

The cane farmers spoke Thursday as they cast votes to elect their representative of Nzoia Zone which experienced a low turnout in most of the 22 polling centers.

Though elections went on peacefully, the whole exercise was marred with voter transportation and buying with farmers saying there was political interference in the whole exercise. 

‘’It is wrong for leaders to use government vehicles to transport people to vote for their accomplices’’ Sinoko farmers said.

An elderly woman cast her vote during the elections at one of the polling center in Nzoia Zone.

Joseph Wafula, a cane farmer, requested to be given humble time to elect a person who could champion their rights arguing that majority of them wallowing in acute poverty as a result of bad leadership.

‘’This time round we want to elect visionary people who will come up with policies that advocate for the rights of farmers not those who are out to use such positions to accumulate wealth,’’ he warned.

Farmers said the chance should be given to fellow common farmer who truly understand predicaments of farmers insisting that for every long time they have given mandate to wrong people to represent them.

The issue of Weigh Bridges raised a lot of concern as they looked forward for the new director to fight for the introduction of mobile weigh bridges.

A lot of cane is lost while on transit, we want this to be done at the factroy in order to maximize profits adding that the weigh bridge itself is questionable as it is almost constant.

Bukembe farmers wondered why cane across the entire eight sugar district could have a similar weight despite different soils and environment.

‘’Even the tracts, whether single or double, our cane will have a very minute variation in weight, a situation which raises eyebrows,’’ one farmer said.

Farmers also wanted the issue of mileage to be addressed since there is lack of standard criteria to ascertain the difference of a distance of a farm to another in the same zone from the factory.

This, they explained the mileage charges vary even from neighboring farms where the distance calculated from the factory differs. More shockingly, the farmers complained that the distance of their farms from the factory is never static from each harvest.

‘’This year you are charged 20KM for mileage and the next harvest they charge 36km on the same farm…..somebody must be out to ripe what rightly belong to us,’’ farmers lamented.

Adding that most farmers receive their pay after three months without proper explanation given concerning the delay.

The Nzoia Sugar Zone attracted eight candidates who battled out with the incumbent chairman of Kenya Sugar Board Saul Busolo.

Others are Ambassador Eliud Wafula Maelo, Isaac Mukenya and Walter Mukinginyi not forgetting Simon Simiyu Masalange, Bramuel Watiti and David Wanyonyi wafula.

Read more: http://www.westfm.co.ke/index-page-news-bid-2834.htm#ixzz1T6lrsWrc