1,300 hectares of sugarcane razed
State minister for Bunyoro Affairs Ernest Kiiza (C) and Masindi District Woman MP Jalia Bintu interact with one of the sugarcane farmers whose plantation was destroyed by fire recently. Courtesy PHOTO
What you need to know:
Loss estimated to be about Shs2 billion
Masindi.
More than 1,300 hectares of sugarcane plantations at Kinyara Sugar Works have been destroyed by fire over the last two weeks, officials have said.
The latest incident happened on Wednesday where about 100 hectares were burnt in Kitiinwa village and 50 others in Kinywamurara village in Bwijanga Sub-county.
Mr Mathivanan Masilamani, the agriculture manager at Kinyara sugar factory, said out of the 1, 300 hectares burnt, 1,000 belonged to the outgrowers.
He says all the burnt canes cannot be harvested at once and crashed because they are overwhelming given the limited manpower and crashing capacity of the factory.
Kinyara Sugar Factory crashes about 4,000 tons of sugarcane per day.
Mr Masilamani estimates the loss resulting from the fires to be about Shs2 billion.
Mr Cosma Byaruhanga, a farmer and vice chairperson Masindi Sugarcane Growers Association, who has also lost six hectares this season, said most of the affected villages are Kinywamurara, Kikuube, Balijukira and Kyandangi in Bwijanga Sub-county and Kyakaitera, Kitiinwa and Nyinezara in Kimengo Sub-county.
He attributes the fires to recklessness, charcoal burning and arsonists.
About kinyara
Kinyara Sugar Works is one of Uganda’s largest sugar factories producing an estimated 110,000 metric tons annually. The factory started operating in the late 1960s in Masindi District. The factory is currently run by Rai Holdings Group, a Mauritius-based firm.
