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Implement taskforce report to save sugar sector, farmers tell CS

Tuesday, January 21st, 2020 00:00 | By
Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association secretary general Richard Ogendo. Photo/File

Sugarcane farmers from Nyanza region have asked the newly appointed Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya to act on the sugar taskforce report to save the ailing sector.

The delay in implementation of the report, they said, will further hurt the sector which is struggling in debt.

Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association secretary general Richard Ogendo said the CS must first make the contents of the report public since farmers feared that it had been doctored.

“The government had good intentions but some cartels hijacked the process and sneaked in proposals that were not fronted by farmers,” he said yesterday during a press conference in Kisumu where he congratulated Munya on his appointment.

Ogendo said farmers were clear in their submissions to the taskforce where they called for doing away with zoning and a ban on sugar imports.    

He further called for establishment of a fund to bail out farmers and help develop the sector. “The president has pronounced himself very strongly on coffee which now has a Sh3 billion fund.

We have also seen tea and now the dairy sector receiving a lot of attention. We want the same for the sugar industry,” he said.  -KNA

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