Sugarcane
Sugarcane Factories have asked the Government to intervene and stop poaching which is threatening the survival of Small millers. They raised concern that their investment is being swept away by millers who are enticing and hoodwinking farmers they have not invested in.
Busia Sugar Factory and Olepito from Lower Western Region have single handedly accused their competitors from other catchment areas of invading their contracted farmers while trading blame games. The frustration has forced Olepito to at some point suspend investment on cane due to the losses incurred with cane they invest in.
Speaking during a meeting bringing together Millers from Western Kenya, the General Manager of Olepito Sugar Factory Gerald Okoth said the company provides services like fertilizer and does land preparation for cane development to its contracted farmers with expectation that it will crush that cane and recover investment.
While calling for government intervention, Okoth decried that their competitors are breaching the contractual law that stipulates that the contract will last for up to three harvests before a farmer decides otherwise. The Millers are required to get the first crop from the contracted farmers which is called a plan crop, the second harvest which is called a first ratoon and the third one known as a second ratoon.
“After that the farmer can still continue if he has maintained the cane properly but most farmers do lease fields for probably five to six years. The reason for that investment was not to give a loan to the farmer, it was to invest to enable the farmer to proceed and develop more cane,” Mr. Okoth disclosed.
The other affected Company, Nzoia Sugar Company from Upper Western catchment area has reported losing 469 hectares to poaching estimated at 40 000 tons. The Company reports that as a result of the heavy poaching by other millers on their fields, it has not been able to recover a whopping Sh. 58Million of inputs advanced to farmers as investment.
The Miller is currently operating at 50 per cent of its milling capacity in line with the available cane, noting that with the massive invasion of its farms by its competitors the availability of mature cane is being affected. To sustain its operations, Nzoia Sugar Plans to plant 2500 hectares of cane for the current season having already reached the 1000 hectares’ mark both in the nucleus and the out grower sectors.
The same fate of poaching has fallen on West Kenya Sugar Factory from Upper Western Region, which has reported that it is staring at losing Sh. 400 Millions of investment to cane due to poaching and particularly Sh. 150million due to the closure of the Khalaba region where it had invested in cane development.
“We cannot lose Sh. 400 million and we start seating back and say that things will go as normal, we can’t accept that, please give us a solution and any miller who has lost cane through poaching and you know who poached that cane and you have records it should be discussed and a solution arrived at,” said David Okumu a representative from West Kenya Sugar Company.
The Factory has however planted sugarcane on 13 800 acres in West Kenya Kakamega and another 22 000 acres of cane in Naitiri to sustain company operations. “I have heard other millers saying that they have developed cane, none of these millers has reached that acreage, so you can see how much we are so geared on developing cane of our own but we develop these cane and we lose it to other competitors, it is unfair and a solution must be arrived at,” he added.
“We have had cases of cane poaching between Butali and West Kenya and we convened a meeting, which AFA was present and it was confirmed that these cases are happening because of the people in the field and we resolved that if a case is found, that cane will remain there until the two millers’ representatives go there settle the issue and the person who has the contract with that farmer will take the cane,” he added.
Butali sugar factory reports that the biggest issue leading to cane poaching is that some millers are not developing cane prorating to their capacities forcing them to look for alternatives. To sustain its operations, Butali Sugar Company has developed 6200 acres of cane adding to last year’s 7600 acres.
The Factory has been milling 2650 metric tons on a daily basis of mature crop which is the same capacity supported by their developed cane. Mumias Sugar Company has equally complained of poaching from its competitors and raising concern that a serious problem the Lower Western Region faces is carpet harvesting meant to deny the Company sugarcane, to ground its operations.
The Head of Operations and Administration of Mumias Sugar Stephen Kuhumba warned that with the trend of cane poaching, millers might be forced to close down for a longer period than last year when they halted operations for only three months. He complained that despite the Millers being categorized to operate within their regions, the lower western region has been losing up to 70 per cent of its cane to the Upper region accusing West Kenya of massive harvesting of their cane.
Mumias Sugar Company, Ole Pito and Busia Sugar are supposed to operate within the Lower Western Region whilst West Kenya, Butali, Nzoia Sugar Company and Naitiri are supposed to operate within the Upper Western Region.
“We are having farmers who are coming down all the way to Mumias for us to harvest cane for them, I have not harvested a single of their farm, I am telling them it is in the upper region, we cannot go there. I am obeying the instructions of AFA because I have farmers with between 20-22 months of cane from the upper western region whose cane has not been harvested and yet our competitors are harvesting sugarcane that is between 7 to 8 months just for Mumias to suffer,” he noted.
Kihumba said despite the challenges the company has embarked on aggressive cane development
“By close of business yesterday, I was able to clock 3000 hectares of cane within my nucleus. We are already harvesting some of these cane, getting between 400 and 500 metric tons every day, and that is for milling. I am also getting an average of 100 tons more cane daily from the out growers,” he added.
He added that the Miller’s Out growers have done close to 800 hectares since April this year.
“So in total, we have 3800 hectares of cane developed between the out growers and our nucleus, this has been made possible through effective Barazas facilitated by the Provincial Administration which has led to farmers signing contracts with us and now we are busy ploughing for them, giving them seed cane and we have rolled out the issuance of fertilizer. Therefore, the program of cane development for Mumias is very steady and therefore it is our humble request that West Kenya is stopped from the lower region and concentrate in their region,” he explained.
Kihumba defended Mumias Sugar noting the farmers who are supplying the cane to the miller are private farmers who developed cane on their own. “You might have harvested that cane from the private farmers sometime back, when Mumias resumed operations the farmer decided to give it to Mumias yet you capture it as your cane. Private cane is what I am crushing at the moment and I am respecting the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) between millers as I am informed,” he added.
A farmer, David Opala, warned millers to abide, respect and operate within their catchment areas as breaching the rules and invading other’s territories is hurting farmers. He said the millers who have been supporting them are now withdrawing services due to the losses they are incurring when the cane they have invested in is poached.
“The Millers who are supposed to assist us get the fertilizer, get the seed cane, are already showing reluctance, the weeding advance is not being given to us because of that fear of poaching and now we are seeing trucks coming from as far as Busia County all the way to the Naitiri zone, that is unacceptable,” he complained.
“When we said we don’t want the issue of zoning no one listened to us, we were then put in particular zones. What I have heard millers talk about here is very unfortunate. Once we have millers coming as far as Busia to Misikhu then we are getting back to anarchy, why don’t we respect the catchment areas. The reason why they are coming up this side is we have developed enough sugarcane; we are milling sugarcane up to the age of 22 months we have not even reached the age of 18. Farmers are asking the people who have not developed their cane to stop coming to our region because they want to bring confusion and that one is going to cost us,” he noted.
“We call upon the regional commissioner, we call upon the sugar directorate to intervene and stop these funny games that are going on, coming here and doing different things on the ground is unacceptable,” he added.