Sugarcane farmers oppose removal of field weighbridges

Sugarcane farmers have opposed the proposal by the Uganda Sugar Manufacturers’ Association (USMA) to ban field weighbridges, saying they are “very beneficial” to them.

The farmers’ concerns are in relation to a letter dated August 24, 2023, addressed to the chairperson of parliamentary committee on tourism, trade and industry, Mr Mwine Mpaka, signed by USMA chairperson, Mr Jim Kabeho.

Mr Kabeho’s letter reads in part: “. . . Competition for sugarcane in the region has led to a new phenomenon of establishment of field weighbridges, which has exacerbated the sugarcane poaching challenges.”

The petition summarily urges the government to ensure that the operation and establishment of field weighbridges is “totally done away with in order to minimise sugarcane poaching.”

Data from USMA indicates that 19 weighbridges have been established in different parts of Busoga sub-region.

Speaking recently at the annual USMA General Meeting, Mr Kabeho said farmers’ yields have fallen drastically to between 50 and 60 tons per hectare, down from between 110 and 120 tons due to resurfacing of weighbridges in the last two years.

“This is a big loss to our farmers and the country at large; if this is corrected, we would double the amount of tons in the same acreage, especially for our farmers,’’ he said at the time.

According to Mr Kabeho, the weigh bridges are being managed by non-agriculturists, who he said are interested in “cheating farmers” under the disguise of reducing their transport costs from their farms to the sugar factories.

Previously, weigh bridges were only located at the sugar mills which are scattered away from farmers, meaning they had to transport the raw cane from their farms to the factories after processing permits offered by the mills.

Subsequently, they had to incur transport costs because of the long distances to the mills, sometimes being forced to involve middlemen, some of whom earned more profits than the actual farmer. But that has since changed.

Currently, a farmer transports his cane to a nearby weigh bridge with a national identity card and promptly pays cash without spending a day at the weighbridge, which wasn’t the case before, where they spent weeks waiting to be cleared by the millers.

Mr Godfrey Naitema, a sugarcane farmer, said there is no need to do away with the weighbridges because Uganda is under a liberalised economy.

Mr Denis Mwagale, who works on one of the weighbridges in Jinja District, said he used to spend a week in the parking yard of Kakira Sugar Works, waiting to be cleared, but it is now history.

Mr Musa Mukose, another worker, said the weigh bridges have created jobs in different centres and therefore should not be abolished.

Mr Sowedi Tenywa, one of the farmers, said having few weighbridges was “very costly” to them in terms of incurring fuel expenses on transport, while getting permits was a “tug of war”.

The chairperson of Great Busoga Sugarcane Farmers’ Union, Mr Godfrey Biriwali, urged millers to start registering farmers to avoid poaching instead of removing weigh bridges.

He said: “Millers should register all sugarcane farmers - both out growers and those who are independent - as a solution to poaching, but not do away with weigh bridges.”