By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
MASINDI
Sugar cane farmers in Bunyoro under their umbrella; Bunyoro sugarcane farmers’ cooperative union limited have asked the government to adhere to its policy of liberalized economy and trade to eliminate monopoly in sugar cane growing and production.
“We do not support monopoly in our crop. Besides, we as the union many of our farmers grow sugarcane independent of the factory,” farmers argued.
Mahmoud G.A Kazimbiraine, the Chairman Bunyoro Sugarcane Farmers’ Cooperative Union Ltd says farmers the liberalized economy and trade policy doesn’t benefit farmers because Kinyara sugar company dictates prices, and market for their sugarcanes.
“When those farmers bring their cane, we have an inalienable right to sell that cane to whoever gives us the highest price we would not encourage the idea of only one factory buying our cane,” Kazimbiraine said arguing that the policy should benefit farmers.
Farmers also raised alarms over the lack of weighing bridges for their sugarcanes stating that the one offered by Kinyara factory cannot accommodate all the farmers’ cane and estate cane which numbers over 400 trucks a day making it difficult for farmers to get accurate weights for their produces. They now propose for alternative sources of weighing bridges something which the factory is opposing.
Additionally, the farmers claim that there are delays in issuing weighing receipts and when they are called to tally their dockets, it’s done manually which raises questions on the accuracy of the information in the records.
“The farmer cannot be sure that the information is correct. This is why it is necessary for the farmer to ascertain his cane’s weight from another source and hence the weighbridges owned by the Union,” Haji Kazimbiraine said.
Nonetheless, the factory alleges theft of the sugarcanes at the weight bridges but, farmers say these are monkey tricks the factory is playing to fight competition arguing that farmer’s particulars and those of the driver are recorded to track the cane from the source to their destination.
“I am aware that Kinyara is using this excuse to help it fight competition from fellow millers, we don’t want to be used as a punch bag in this fight. Both our weighbridges are calibrated and verified and licenced by UNBS which is a department of this ministry,” farmers stressed.
Haji Kazimbiraine further alleges impunity by the factory to connive with the police to steal sugarcanes from the farmers.
It should be noted that Bunyoro regions is one of the biggest growers and producers of sugarcanes besides Buganda and Busoga, producing over 50 tonnes per one hectare of land.
Farmers in the area accuse the government of failing to fulfill it’s pledge to establish sugar milling factories in the region as per the presidential pledges made during the presidential tours in Busoga region in 2014.
“It is now over five years but those factories are nowhere to be seen. For us in Bunyoro, licenses are given to establish sugar mills but they get revoked as soon as they are issued,” said Haji Kazimbiraine.
He tasked the government to also prioritize local investors same way they protect foreign investors.
“There is a tendency for government to think that for a person or company to be regarded as an investor he/she must have come from outside the country but in the sugarcane industry, the local person who grows sugarcane is a very crucial investor,” he said.
” In Masindi the out growers of Kinyara have fields totalling 32000 hectares which provides 72% of canes crushed by Kinyara. This means that the out grower of Kinyara producing 1,971,000 tonnes of sugar annually, if we all accepted the principle that sugar is produced on the field and processed in the factory.”
A report by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), 2024, exposed the exploitation of sugarcane farmers at weighbridges. Industry experts proposed that sugarcane be weighed only at factory premises using properly calibrated weighbridges
