President Ruto assures sugarcane farmers of fair returns for their deliveries

The Government has intervened with consistency and focus to ensure sugarcane growers receive fair returns for their deliveries, president William Ruto has said.

The president said the move is aimed at ensuring that they get paid in full and on time.

To anchor these gains sustainably, Ruto said they must recognize that increasing the efficiency of milling plants is central to farmers’ interests.

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Efficient mills, Ruto said, are more profitable and offer farmers optimal returns.

Conversely, he noted, outdated mills, some of which run on plants that are over 50 years old, recover only one tonne of sugar from nearly 20 tonnes of cane, shortchanging our growers and robbing them of their sweat must be looked into.

In this connection, he said, the recent competitive leasing of four state-owned factories namely Nzoia, Chemelil, Sony, and Muhoroni is another strategic step to inject efficiency, restore profitability, and safeguard farmers’ livelihoods.

‘Our goal is to modernise the mills, ensure prompt payment to farmers, workers’ salaries and wages, and transform these once-struggling factories into productive and sustainable enterprises.’ He said.

For years, Ruto said, these factories were a financial burden on the Exchequer, surviving only on repeated taxpayer-funded bailouts while failing to pay farmers and workers.

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The government, he said, has acknowledged its limitations in managing these mills.

‘Let it be clearly understood that neither the factories nor their assets, including land, have been sold.’ He said.

The firms, he said, remain public property leased under strict terms to private sector players to deliver shared value and revive the industry for the benefit of farmers, workers, communities, the sector and the nation.

By Fredrick Odiero

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