Bunge la mwananchi

Growers wanted the funds channelled through a sugar miller in the area, which would have acted as their guarantor as it has been the case in the past. Photo/FILE

A serious shortage of sugar cane is looming after some farmers stopped growing the crop, the Kenya Sugar Board has warned.

The situation has also been attributed to the diversion of funds intended to develop the raw material by some sugar millers for other projects. KSB on Friday said it was on high alert due to a sharp fall in the supply of sugar cane as some farmers have abandoned growing it citing poor returns.

Speaking to the Nation in Mumias Town on Friday, a board director in charge of the Sugar Development Fund, Mr Billy Wanjala, said KSB would soon start lending money to farmers in all sugar zones as one way of dealing with the anticipated shortage. In an advert in the Daily Nation last Friday, the sugar regulatory body invited tenders from firms to run a scheme that offers direct lending services to sugar cane farmers.

Farmers from Mumias had earlier opposed plans by KSB to release to them Sh300 million meant for a cane development project through financial institutions over lending conditions. Instead, the growers wanted the funds channelled through a sugar miller in the area, which would have acted as their guarantor as it has been the case in the past.

Mr Wanjala said the board’s gesture was meant to urgently address the cane shortage being felt particularly in Western Province. Mr Wanjala urged millers to increase the sugar cane producer price “given that the prices of sugar are very high on the world market at the moment”.

He said KSB would release a cane census report next week. West Kenya Sugar Company with a crushing capacity of 3,500 tonnes of sugar cane every day is operating currently at 2,200 tonnes per day, according to the agricultural services manager, Mr George Sagalla.

He disclosed this when the KSB held a series of meetings geared towards encouraging farmers to embrace cane farming in the area. Mr Sagalla said the miller would be forced to reduce the cane harvesting age from between 18 months and 24 months to 16 months if the shortage continued to bite.