Role of Sugarca...

Opinion By Francis Songok of The Kenya Sugar Board

The QBCPS aims at providing the support tools for driving industry performance to higher competitiveness. Incentives for quality improvements, engender equity in the sharing of proceeds from sugar cane products among stakeholders through product diversification e.g. bio-ethanol, organic fertilizers and cogeneration and minimized losses attributed to mills’ process inefficiencies.

Farmers play a central role in the sugarcane industry in Kenya, they supply the main raw material for commercial sugar production. At the farm level, sugar cane productivity may be low due to poor seed quality, long maturing varieties, pests and diseases, high cost of inputs, delayed payments to farmers among others. 

The new payment system seeks to incentivize the farmer in order to maximize the quantity of sucrose as well as the weight of cane delivered to the mill. To achieve this the farmer ought to adhere to good agricultural practices (GAPs) which include;

1. Land preparation; proper land preparation is an important aspect in any farming activity. Land clearing, plowing or minimal tillage activities should be undertaken during the dry season to avoid formation of hard pans. Harrowing can also be done to enhance cane proper roots penetration, furrowing and organic matter incorporation may also be done.
2. Cane variety and seed selection; based on region, early maturing high yielding and healthy cane variety should be adopted. This can be done in collaboration with mill field staff, certified vendors or the Sugar Research Institute.
3. Crop Management; guided by soil tests a farmer can appropriately fertilize the field. Crop surveillance and inspection is essential in pests and diseases management, climate smart weed management, mechanical or chemical weeding ensures healthy growth of crops.
4. Timely harvesting; harvesting should typically be done after the cane has reached full maturity, usually around 12 to 18 months depending on the variety and growing conditions. This should be ideally done during dry seasons when sucrose concentration is at peak, this also reduces land compaction by trucks.

Cane is the raw material used in sugar production, while to the grower, cane is the final saleable product of cane farming. The farmer should always strive to ensure delivery of high quality cane in order to fully benefit from QBCPS while ensuring sugar industry remains sustainable to favorably be competitive in the region.