Mumias sugarcane farmer Simon Wesechere inspects his sugarcane farm at his home at Shianda in Mumias East on March 24, 2022. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard] Sugarcane farmers from Migori county are disappointed lot after Sony Sugar Company failed to pay them for deliveries made over a year ago.
Elly Ochieng, one of the affected farmers, claims to have harvested his crop and made deliveries to the sugar mill in February 2021 but has not been paid his dues to date.
Ochieng, who has been doing sugarcane farming since 1986, says desperation caused by non-payment has made him abandon the crop. "I am tired of the sugarcane industry. It pains me that I incurred huge expenses when I was growing my sugarcane but ended up getting nothing out of my sweat, not even a single penny,” said the farmer.
Like many other distraught cane farmers in the area, Ochieng, who was reluctant to divulge how much he is owed by the state-owned sugar company, has since shifted to maize farming and opted to lease out part of his farm to other farmers.
Paul Siengo, another farmer, leased 18 acres of land to plant sugarcane and pumped at least Sh480, 000 into the venture.
“Part of the money went to leasing the land and the rest into land preparation, buying seed cane and other farm inputs as well as maintaining the plantation,” he said.
According to Siengo, all the efforts went to waste because his payment has been delayed for over one year since he harvested the crop and made deliveries to the sugar mill.
His sugarcane plantation which is located at Kabuoch in Homa Bay County and Oyani Masani in Migori was planted in February 2017.
“The crop matured after 12 months and stayed for 27 months before it was harvested and taken to Sony Sugar factory,” said the farmer.
Siengo hoped to get Sh1.9 million from his venture but he has not received a penny for the toil.
“It is like they have forgotten about us. Whatever I did was in vain. It is very discouraging,” he said.According to Sony Sugar company managing director Stephen Ligawa, plans to pay the farmers are in top gear after the firm resumed full operations.He noted that some farmers were being paid directly by the Ministry of Agriculture from the Sh350 million released to the factory following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive.Mr Ligawa said Sh318 million was allocated to the factory and Sh38 million was […]
