KISUMU, Kenya, Dec 7 – The outgoing Director General of Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), Willis Audi, has urged farmers to plant new varieties of cane that mature faster to boost local sugar production.
He noted that currently the government is importing sugar to bridge the deficit, resulting in the high cost of sugar on the shelves.
“Our farmers must come out strongly to start planting the new varieties, let’s stop planting the old varieties,” he said.
Audi says even though the new varieties, which mature early, are fewer, efforts are underway to develop more and multiply existing fast-maturing canes.
“Let’s not stick to cane varieties that take 22 months to mature when we have varieties that only takes 9 to 11 months to be harvested,” he said.
Speaking at the last day of a sugar industry innovation symposium being held in Kisumu and organized by AFA, Audi says the price of the sugar commodity will continue to skyrocket if no interventions are put in place.
“I want to appeal to the millers and other stakeholders to support our farmers so that the uptake of the new varieties can push up,” he said.
In attendance too was John Mutunga, the chairman of the Agriculture and Livestock Committee in the National Assembly, who assured farmers that payments for sucrose content will soon be a reality.
“Already, we have machines to help in weighing the sucrose content in various sugar milling zones, but they are not in use,” he said.
The MP noted that the establishment of the machines was very costly, and it’s prudent that they be put into use.
He further told the farmers that the Sugar Bill 2023 will be dispensed with by the National Assembly by next year so as to give the sector a new lease of life.
The Bill intends to return the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB), which will allow farmers in clusters to elect board directors to represent their interests.
Mutunga announced that the Bill has not recognized zoning but clusters with a call on cane supply contracts with farmers in a bid to stop cane poaching by millers.
