Thursday, August 18, 2011

THERE IS NEED TO FOCUS MORE ON OUT GROWER SCHEMES TO INCREASE SUGAR PRODUCTION IN UGANDA

Reference: Madhvani Group of October 2009 Volume 17 No.2
There is no reward that comes one’s way on a silver platter, some seat has to be dropped first. The farmers who grow Sugar cane outside the estate and sell it to Kakira Sugar Works have seen their efforts rewarded in many ways. These farmers now supply more than 60% of all the Sugar cane milled at the factory. Annually, Kakira pays over Ushs 16 billion to Out Growers.
“The information below where a number of people state that they have been able to increase acreage on which Sugar cane is grown as Out Growers is evidence that land can be well utilized in increased growing of Sugar canes to meet the demand of Sugar making factories. What is important is the harmonious relation with the factory owners including timely payments and indeed such payments that make economic sense.”
William Kituuka Kiwanuka

WHAT SOME OUTGROWERS SAY ABOUT ACRAGE THEY HAVE
1. Wako Laston a resident of Magamaga village in Baitambogwe Sub County in Bunya County, Mayuge district says, “I started cane growing in 1993 with only two acres, but now have 193 acres.”
2. Ronald Mukisa from Karungo village in Buyengo zone in Jinja district started cane business in 1993 with one acre, he now has 50 acres.
3. Joseph Mukakama a resident of Bugaya village in Busedde Sub County started growing Sugar canes in 1961, this was stopped when Asians were expelled and resumed in 1988 with 6 acres but now have 20 acres.
4. Ismail Kabugo a resident of Lukolo village in Budondo Sub County in Jinja started growing Sugar canes in 1992 with 3 acres but now grow canes on 24 acres.
5. Mariam Makumbi a resident of Bugaya village in Busedde Sub County started growing canes in 2000 with 3 acres and now she grows a whole 10 acres.
6. Fred Lubega from Magamaga village in Bunya County started growing on 3 acres and now has 250 acres of cane.
7. Badru Bigendawa a farmer from Mutai village in Buwenge started growing Sugar canes in 1986 with 5 acres, and now has 110 acres.
8. Edward Mutunga of Namagunga village in Busedde Sub County of Jinja started growing canes in 1999 with 4 acres and now has 35 acres.
9. James Kulaba comes from Kyomya central village in Budondo Sub County in Kagoma county, Jinja district. He has been growing canes since 1986 having started with 3 acres on rented land and now has 35 acres.
10. Mawazi Mukwana a resident of Namasiga village in Busedde Sub County started cane farming in 1990 with only 3 acres but now has 45 acres.
11. Patrick Lwaido from Kyomya village in Budondo Sub County, Kagoma county in Jinja district started with 4 acres and now has 40 acres.

OUT GROWERS PROFIT FROM KAKIRA SUGAR WORKS
Publication date: Sunday, 9th July, 2006
By Sylvia Jjuuko
ALBERT Bageya is a contented man. He has seen his fortune accumulate through growing and supplying sugarcane to Kakira Sugar Works (KSW). His fruitful journey with KSW began about 41 years ago when he joined the company as a security officer.
“When I came to Kakira, I was a young man and I left when I was an old man, but even today I am still enjoying money from the company,” he says.
Realising there was an opportunity to supplement his income, he decided to supply sugarcane to the company two years later. He grew the cane on his 7-acre plot of land at Nakbale.
However, misfortune struck in 1973 when the country was hit by political turmoil, which culminated into the expulsion of Asians and the closure of the factory.
“The factory was not taking sugarcane, so I abandoned growing it and switched to food crops,” he says.
With the return of Madhvani Group in the 1980s, Bageya resumed growing sugarcane on his land. Nine years after this resumption, he had made enough money to expand his land to 20 acres.
“I grow coffee, vanilla, food crops and sugarcane, but of these, sugarcane gives me the best returns. My income from Kakira has enabled me to educate my four boys,” says Bageya. “In Busoga, whoever is growing cane is well off.”
Despite having retired officially in 1992, he has no plans of stopping growing sugarcane.
“I prefer remaining an outgrower – the company will be here forever. I have plans of expanding my land,” he says.
Bageya’s fortune will continue accumulating, owing to Madhvani Group’s launch of an expansion drive with $43m earmarked for Kakira Sugar Works growth and the generation of power. This project has been undertaken with the assistance of the Government, World Bank and the rural electrification programme. Mayur Madhvani, the group managing director, says the group is eyeing northern Uganda for the possibility of setting up a plant there.
“The group’s overall vision is to consolidate the sugar industry in Uganda, making sugar available at cheaper rates through economies of scale and eventually encouraging the Ugandan public to invest in the group through floatation,” he said.
Sugarcane production is projected to expand to 17,000 hectares to enable farmers supply over 1.1 million tonnes of cane from the current 550,000 tonnes annually by 2007 under the KSW outgrowers’ expansion programme. Madhvani reveals that KSW currently employs over 6,200 employees and the expansion programme will have a significant social impact on rural agriculture.
Under the expansion and co-generation project, the KSW’s factory plant will provide 30MW of power for sale to the national grid.
“The generation of up to 30MW will augment national supply, which would reduce current peak-hour power generation from petro-carbon based fuels,” says Madhvani.
The group is also exploring the production of fuel grade ethanol from molasses, a by-product from sugar production, which move will help the country save on importing fuels.
“Fuel ethanol produced from molasses can be easily blended up to 10% with normal petrol without requiring any modification of automobile engines,” he said. Alongside nurturing entrepreneurship, KSW takes pride in grooming athletes. With the support of the company, Waiswa Lukungu, 22, has lifted the KSW athletics team to national recognition.
“The KSW athletics team is now considered one of the best teams in Uganda, in part due to Waiswa’s performance,” says Nathan Mujongola, the Kakira Assistant sports officer.
Waiswa’s prowess has taken him beyond Uganda’s borders to compete at an international level.
“I have Kakira at heart. KSW sponsored me to attend the 2003 African Junior Athletics Championship in Cameroon, where I won a silver medal in the 400m class with 47.4 seconds,” he says.
Because of Waiswa’s performance, the Kakira team was able to win the 400m relay, 400m hurdles as well as the 100m, 200m and long jump in the 2005 National Open championships.
Waiswa acknowledges that Kakira has had a huge influence on his life. He was born in Kakira Hospital and studied at Madhvani Primary School.
Most of the employment opportunities and support that Madhvani Group gives the different sectors are based on the founder of the group, Muljibhai Madhvani’s belief in working together with people at all levels.

I AM READY FOR WAR ON SUGAR

By Gerald Bareebe

Posted Friday, August 19 2011 at 00:00

President Museveni is not ready to listen to appeals for him to drop his single-minded determination to give 7,100 hectares of Mabira Central Forest Reserve to the Mehta Group to grow sugarcane.
On Tuesday, the President was in belligerent mood when he hosted Kampala City Traders Association leaders along with the Kwagalana Group of wealthy city businessmen when they had called on him at State House in a bid to secure a halt in the project.
“Tell anybody out there that I am ready for war on sugar,” the President reportedly said. “Let us fight this war once and for all. I am not ready to listen to anybody who is saying that I save Mabira.”
Mr Museveni told his guests he is going ahead with the Mehta project despite loud protests of conservationists, environmentalists and the general population who are outraged there will be grave and irreversible repercussions for the eco-system, climate and water catchment area. Presidential Press secretary Tamale Mirundi confirmed that the President remains unmoved.
“Normally when people meet the President they tend to distort information but I am happy that KACITA has not,” Mr Murundi said yesterday. “The President’s position on Mabira has not changed. He made his position clear that part of forest should be given away. If it had changed, you would have received a statement from State House stating so.”
One source said the businessmen demanded to know why Mehta was hell-bent on the forest even after the same wish resulted in the deadly 2007 Mabira riots. But the President reportedly said Mehta does not mind what follows.
KACITA spokesman Issa Ssekito said when he asked whether Mehta is still interested in Mabira land even at the expense of the populace, “(Museveni) said that when he visited Mehta, Mehta told him that he does not mind what Ugandans think. The President told us that he (Mehta) is ready to take the land if government gives it to him.”
Mr Ssekito said the President gave two conditions which he insisted must be fulfilled to save Mabira.
The President asked Kwagalana to provide a surefire plan for an alternative source of sugar production and scientific proof that Uganda’s environment would be endangered if the forest was cut down. His guests proposed that Mehta be advised look for land elsewhere to no avail.
“Why do you force an investor to go somewhere he does not want?” the President retorted. “You can also go and invest there. I am not going to import sugar anymore. We shall do this and we are ready for this war.”

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Businessman Godfrey Kirumira suggested a compromise in which they asked the President to shelve his decision on Mabira while the businessmen agree on how to invest in another sugar factory to save the forest.
Mr Kirumira, who is also the current chairperson of Kwagalana Group, broke the tension with a passionate appeal to the President to reduce his anti-Mabira rhetoric, warning that the public was becoming irritated and could resort to protests like the 2007 riots in which three people were killed.

Mabira Riots: Environmentalists Confident that Message on Forest Giveaway has been Heard
Submitted by
Abdullahi Boru
Accepted on
2007-04-12 19:38:42
Despite the chaos and death that surrounded today's demonstration against the giveaway of Mabira Forest, environmental campaigners are confident that their message to Government for the preservation of Uganda's natural resources has been heard.
The demonstration organized by the Save Mabira Crusade was marred by mob violence in which three people were killed and numerous others seriously injured. Devang Reval, a man on Southeast Asian descent, was killed by a mob near Clock Tower in Kampala. Two Uganda men in their mid-30s, only one identified as Lawrence Serwano a resident of Rubaga Road, were shot to dead in the city center under unclear circumstances.
The mob also burned a motorcycle and a truck loaded with sacks of sugar and besieged the Hindu Temple on Burton Street near the Nakasero Market. Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed in the riots.
However environmental lobbyists are confident that the petition they handed over to the Speaker of Parliament and the large crowd of protestors will prove to Government that the people of Uganda are against the giveaway of Mabira Forest. Many of the lobbyists condemn today's violence, but say it should not overshadow the proposal to hand over one third of the forest for the expansion of a sugarcane plantation.
The executive secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, Rev. Canon Grace Kaiso, was among the demonstrators who gathered at the railways square on Jinja Road early this morning as the letter of protest was delivered to Parliament. He said the Bible authorizes all people to protect the environment and that the church needed to over the public guidance in the Mabira debate.
It would have been a very unique environmental demonstration if one of Uganda's most outspoken lobbyists, Conservative Party's Ken Lukyamuzi was missing from the demonstration.
Lukyamuzi told the gathering that Mabira Forest belongs to the people of Uganda and that Government is only holding it in trust. The former Member of Parliament, who has presidential aspirations, said it was time for Ugandans to elect an environmentally conscious president.

Read more: http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=10831#ixzz1VS4qODjY

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