Sugarcane farmers decry exploitation
A truck transports sugarcane in Jinja City at the. PHOTO BY TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- Initially, one tonne of sugarcane used to go for about Shs150,000. However, when investors came in, now a tonne goes for about Shs90,000 in Busoga and as low as Shs70,000 in Bunyoro.
Sugarcane farmers from the western and eastern parts of the country have decried what they call exploitation and underpayment by the sugar investors.
Speaking at a National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) press conference yesterday, Mr Lennox Mugume, a sugarcane farmer from Masindi, claimed all was rosy with the local investors until foreign ones took over management.
“We used to do pretty well before the investors came in, however, when they came in to manage the factories and farms, everything changed. For example, when you are contracted to go to plough or weed the farms of out growers, they used to pay Shs100,000, now they pay as low as Shs20,000 per acre,” he claimed.
He further claimed the sugarcane farmers in Masindi are not allowed to sell their sugar canes anywhere else apart from the factories within the area yet there is a ready market outside the district.
“There is no market because these investors have set up satellite farms and have enough sugarcane for themselves so people are rotting with their sugarcane yet we are not allowed to trade outside the zone,” he said.
Mr Mugume claimed that when investors had just come in, they laid off about 250 workers from the factories with no valid reason, scrapped off permanent employment and all workers are now on contract with no accommodation, transport and health benefits.
Likewise, Mr Dennis Wambuzi, another farmer from Kaliro in Jinja District, claimed there are more than five sugar factories in his area that employ people on contractual basis, which terms are always breached.
“They contract you for a week but when the week comes to an end, they calculate the food you have been eating and deduct it from your supposed payment and that’s how some of us end up leaving the farm or factory with very little or no payment or even indebted to the factory,” he said.
Mr Wambuzi also said at the moment permits to sell sugarcane are no longer given by the factories, especially to the small scale farmers.
He added that all permits are now allegedly given to government officials and politicians mostly, leaving the farmers’ product to go to waste.
Initially, one tonne of sugarcane used to go for about Shs150,000. However, when investors came in, now a tonne goes for about Shs90,000 in Busoga and as low as Shs70,000 in Bunyoro.
