Kwale sugar farmers demand slot in KSB

By Philip Mwakio

Sugar cane farmers at the Coast now want a stake in the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB).

Farmers said that while they appreciated efforts put by the investor, Kwale International Sugar Company Limited (Kiscol) in reviving cane growing, it was time that farmers in the region be allowed access to KSB.

Sule Bandika, a Kwale farmer farmer said that just like their counterparts in the Western Kenya sugar-growing belt, they ought to have representation on the board.

"We have been sensitised as outgrowers and are rearing to go once Kiscol starts crushing its first cane from the farms," Bandika said.

Kiscol has invested in both cane farming and is putting up a state of the art sugar milling plant at the site of the defunct Ramisi Sugar Factory in Kwale.

During an earlier visit at the Kiscol farm, an official from the Muhoroni Sugar Cane Outgrowers Company, Killion Osur said that it was prudent that Coast be represented in KSB now that sugar cane farming has been successfully revived in Kwale.

"Coast farmers suffered after Ramisi went under owing to gross mismanagement. Now that Kiscol has come in, Coast ought to have a slot in the board just like all the other cane producing regions," Osur said then.

Emulate

Kiscol has stepped up cane growing with its latest application of modern farming technologies like drip irrigation and use of fast maturing cane varieties.

Osur urged farmers from regions that have little rainfall to emulate this to boost cane productivity.

At the same time, Osur urged farmers in Kwale to consider enrolling with the Kenya National Sugarcane Growers Association (Kesga), which will hold its national elections in April.