Residents of Borabu Constituency in Nyamira have called upon the county government to partner with sugar millers in South Nyanza to enable them sell their sugarcane easily and efficiently.
Speaking on Saturday during the burial of Former Mekenene Ward Councilor Julius Obwaya, speaker after speaker urged the county leadership to intervene and help farmers carry out sugar cane farming in large scale.
“Some of us want to do sugarcane farming in large scale but it is cumbersome to transport it to millers. I call upon the county government to help us partner with many sugar factories in the region to enable us sell our product,” said James Openda, a sugarcane farmer.
He said they are compelled to sell the product for human consumption, despite producing it in large quantities due to difficulty in finding markets.
“We are forced to sell our sugarcane locally since we cannot afford to transport it to millers given the immense expenses incurred in the process. Some of those millers are at distant places and that is why we need help from county leadership,” he added.
According to Openda, many farmers have abandoned tea farming due to its diminishing prizes in the international market and joined sugarcane farming.
“Sugarcane farming will soon overtake the predominant tea farming due to its dwindling and devastating prizes in the contemporary market. If we get a way of joining a certain sugarcane factory, then we’ll get a remedy to our problems,” he said.
Many sugarcane milling factories are found in Nyanza region, which include Muhoroni, Awendo, and Chemilil, but Transmara Sugar Company in Narok County is the proxy to Gusii region.