Farmers demand stable sugarcane prices

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Farmers under the umbrella of Busoga Sugarcane Growers Cooperative Union are demanding stable sugarcane prices, as a way of averting a possible crisis within the industry.

While addressing journalists in Jinja on Tuesday, the farmers observed that price stability will improve the viability of the sugar industry within hosting communities and safeguard farmers from manipulation by middlemen and millers.

Their chairperson Issa Budhugo also cited a possible return to the sugar crisis seen between 2018 and mid-2022, where sugarcane prices fell from 123,000 to 25,000 Shillings per tonne. He said that the crisis derailed farmers and forced most of them to clear their farms and opt for other crops, which has resulted in the prevailing sugarcane scarcity.

Budhugo notes that without assurance on prices, the industry will be continuously controlled by syndicated rackets of middlemen, whom he accuses of manipulating the rules of demand and supply to deliberately push native farmers out of the industry.

He argues that much as the Sugar Act abolished zoning and offered them a free market economy, to easily sell off cane to their preferred buyers, millers independently decide on the final tonnage prices without factoring the costs of production.

Isaac Suubi, a sugarcane farmer from Kamuli district says that the farmers are currently enjoying a sense of relief,  with prices ranging from 230,000-245,000 Shillings per tonne, which has now attracted smallholder farmers to embrace the industry. He adds that, however, without clear price definitions, the prices will negatively derail farmers in the course of the anticipated bumper harvests during the forthcoming seasons.

Samuel Akalyamawa, a sugarcane farmer from Buyengo Town Council says that millers no longer offer subsidies in terms of agricultural inputs and transport trucks to the farmers, which further reduces the profit margin for the farmers.

Akalyamawa added that the government should be intentional about setting up a task force to encourage millers to transparently disclose the diverse products extracted from raw sugarcane and harmonize on fair and stable prices to the farmers.

Akalyamawa further called upon parliament to cluster the sugarcane farmers within the agricultural ministry, rather than cruddling them in the trade docket, where he says that their demands on inputs and machinery support, among others are not effectively addressed.

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