Listen more to sugar technologists, farmers in bid to revive industry

Sugarcane farmers demonstrate outside Kisumu County Governor's office over zoning and unpaid arrears on January 14, 2019. [File, Standard]

Many people are now talking about the revival of the sugar industry in Kenya. There are those who believe it is too late, or it will be a waste of taxpayers’ money.

But I think it is not yet too late, and we can learn from the mistakes of the past, shake ourselves up and be back on the road to recovery as if nothing ever happened.

But to triumph against all the odds that are stacked against the sugar industry, some painful decisions will have to be made. The overall performance of the sugar industry in Kenya has been on a decline and 2017 was its lowest point in the last two decades.

Total cane milled decreased to 4,640,771 tons in 2017 from 7,411,303 tons in the previous year, representing a 37 per cent drop.This shrunk the sugar manufactured by an enormous 41 per cent from a high of 638,653 tons achieved in 2016 to a low of 375,012 tons in 2017.

This was attributed to cane shortage in the industry, leading to under-utilisation of factory capacities. Total area under cane in the sugar industry by the close of this year stood at 191,215 hectares, compared to 220,827 hectares recorded within the same period in 2016.

Notable was the huge decrease in cane area in Mumias Sugar zone, dropping from 43,257 hectares in December 2016 to 21,538 hectares at the end of 2017. This is a 50 per cent drop.

The decrease was attributed to prolonged drought in the country during the year, limited access to affordable funds to help in developing and maintaining cane following the scrapping of the Sugar Development Levy (SDL) in 2016, which used to fund cane development, poor factory rehabilitation programs, non-responsive research, poor infrastructure development/maintenance and outright farmer apathy.

Delivered cane

There was basically no positive story and it was clear the industry had collapsed into the Intensive Care Unit. Politics as usual never helped the sector. The crisis the sector is facing is not new to any insider.

Those who have been following the developments in the sector could not have been found off guard. The collapse of the sector has been  felt most by farmers who, unfortunately, took the biggest beating, having delivered cane only to be kept waiting for their cheques for a long time. And when they came, it was too little too late.

To cure the sugar industry, there are a few things the country must do. First, the farmer and farmers’ organisations are critical to a successful sugar industry, yet they have been ignored over the years. This has to change.

The farmer must now be at the centre, if not at the top of the food chain. If decision making and planning for the future of the sector is done without sufficient stock of good quality cane, there is no industry.

A good place to start will be the immediate review of the farmer-miller contract that has all along never been Farmer friendly.

The second step will be to restructure farmer organisations and transform them into Cooperative societies in line with the Cooperative Act.

Privatisation of the sector is not an obvious panacea, nor the magical way to go. But this should take the format of indigenisation by skewing the process as much as possible to give more ownership rights to the farmer and local communities in the interest of sustainability of the industry.

Focal communities

Selling it to the highest bidder will make the farmer lose his stake in the sector, and may lead to disenfranchisement when decisions are taken based on profit maximization by the new owners at the expense of other stakeholders; the farmer and focal communities.

There is also the need to establish a Sugar Development Bank that will take away the risk of financing crop development, factory operations, research and development for a robust and self-sustaining sector.

After this is done, parliament will now be required to do its part in safeguarding the sector to go past infancy stage. This will be by coming up with import regulations that will promote local industry as opposed to importation.

Doing all this without dealing with the menace of corruption that is the elephant in the room for the sugar industry will be an exercise in futility.

The renewed fight against corruption must also shine the spotlight on the sector to deal with sugar barons and input suppliers who hike the costs of inputs, hence production.

As the Presidential Task Force on the Revival of the Sugar Industry does its work, let it listen more to the farmer and the Sugar Technologists for crucial input than any other stake holder.

Mr Toywa is a former Agronomist at Mumias Sugar Company and at Bayer CropScience, currently an Agribusiness Consultant and Hon Secretary of the Sugar Veterans Consultative Forum (SuVeCo).