Sugarcane farmers stuck with produce

Sugarcane farmers in Busoga sub-region are stuck with produce due to low demand from millers.
Some outgrowers say their sugarcane has exceeded the 18-month maturity period and is drying up in the gardens.
At Kakira Sugar Works, about 600 trucks were last week seen parked with sugarcane in the waiting yard, with drivers saying they had spent four days waiting for their vehicles to be cleared for offloading.
Mr Denis Kiwanuka, one of the drivers, said he had spent four days in the parking yard sleeping in his truck yet the area does not even have a toilet.
Mr Simon Lubaale, a sugarcane outgrower in Luuka District, said the delay to offload the cane affects its tonnage.
He added that previously, it took two days to supply 40 tonnes of sugarcane but it now takes 10 days because there are many suppliers.
“I have been harvesting 50 acres of sugarcane in a month but it now takes me four months,” Mr Lubaale said.
The spokesperson of Busoga Sugarcane Outgrowers Association (BSGA), Mr Godfrey Naitema, urged millers to increase on their capacity to prevent the farmers from making losses.
Statistics from BSGA indicate that Busoga has 20,000 large scale sugarcane farmers.
The chairperson of Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association, Mr Jim Kabeho, confirmed that farmers are stuck with sugarcane because some factories are servicing their machines while others have started crushing their own cane. “Most farmers harvest immature cane and with competition of sugar coming from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), we no longer use such cane,” he said. Mr Kabeho, however, urged the farmers to harvest mature cane and be patient, saying the problem is temporary.
In a related development, sugarcane farmers in Mayuge District have decried low prices of cane despite the increasing prices of sugar.
The chairperson of Mayuge District Sugarcane Outgrowers Association, Mr Hamis Ndhote, last week said factory owners are taking advantage of farmers’ desperate need for school fees.
He said a tonne of sugarcane now goes for Shs28,000 instead of Shs140,000.
Mr Ndhote appealed to government to regulate the price of sugarcane to protect farmers from exploitation.